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“Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to

humanity as a whole.... Auroville will be a site of material and

spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human

unity....”

For a decade or so, Auroville developed quietly and organically:

there was no guru, no CEOs, no private property (for instance, my

wife Namrita and I have no children and our house, where I

invested the returns from my articles and books, will go back to

Auroville on our death), no circulation of money (Aurovillians get

a maintenance credited to an account, from which they can

purchase food and pay their electricity bill), and the community,

originating today from 60 countries, periodically elected groups

that looked after finances, administration, forests, land

purchasing, and units and factories.

More than that, the pioneers of Auroville, with little money, no

water and no compost, planted three million trees, making out of

a barren plateau, the greenest place in the plains of Tamil Nadu. It

also gave birth to a hydra-monster: land that was worth barely

₹1,000 an acre in the 1970s is now worth ₹10 crore, and

everybody is rushing in — promoters, restaurants, cafés, guest

houses and hotels that have often no other interest than

commercial gains.

The beginnings of conflict