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15 Nov 2024, 17:02

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/much-needed- impetus-to-making-auroville-a-city-of-the-future/

article68869905.ece

Much-needed impetus to making Auroville a ‘city of the

future’

PREMIUM

Land consolidation for the city

area is being overseen in a

professional way

Published - November 15, 2024 04:32 am IST

ANU MAJUMDAR

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‘Auroville is a vision-driven city’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Named after Sri Aurobindo and based on his vision for the

future, Auroville was created as a planned city for the

evolution of humanity. Towards this, the Mother, Sri

Aurobindo’s spiritual collaborator, invited the architect, Roger

Anger, in 1965, gave him a brief and worked with him for the

next three years until she approved the final plan known as

the Galaxy, in 1968. But, before that, in 1966, the architect

and his team made a presentation on Auroville and its city

plan at UNESCO, Paris, at Mother’s request. This reveals

Auroville as a city with a spiritual centre placed on a lake and

surrounded by gardens.

Their brief speaks of a city powered by solar energy,

optimising pedestrian flow instead of polluting cars, rainwater

harvesting, the use of natural air conditioning, and streets

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with shade to ease walkability: a forerunner of sustainable

planning now being emulated across the world, which a

faction of residents remains ignorant of, despite all

information being available in the public domain of Auroville.

The City Plan, intrinsic sustainability

For the experiment to succeed, the Mother limited the

population to 50,000 residents with a corresponding urban

plan, where all aspects for an evolving humanity would find

place. Created for humanity as a whole, as stated in the

opening line of the Charter, this experiment was nevertheless

aimed at those ready to make a commitment, as the Charter

also states: But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing

servitor of the Divine Consciousness.

On February 28, 1968, the Galaxy Plan was displayed at the

entrance of the Amphitheatre and the Charter read out. All

men of goodwill were invited to this extraordinary

experiment and city, provided they had a thirst for progress

and aspired to a higher and truer life.

By 1969, the Mother hired Roger Anger to prepare the first

master plan study. Here the most important element after the

Matrimandir, the Crown, was presented in detail. Yet, it has

had to wait through years of impasse after the Mother’s

passing, court cases and, finally, the Auroville Foundation Act,

enacted in 1988. With this, the process of formulating an

official master plan was undertaken by residents at the

request of the Governing Board, as stipulated in the Act, and

received all approvals by 2001. It is understood that

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obstruction or abuse against the Charter or the City plan is

wholly against the spirit of Auroville.

However, all attempts to simply mark the Crown on the

ground, let alone build it, met with constant obstruction by a

resident faction. It took over 20 years, many letters from

residents to the Governing Board to break the impasse, and

25 court cases against the Auroville Foundation and working

groups (including a case filed at the National Green Tribunal

claiming Auroville to be a “deemed forest”) to finally allow

the Crown to happen.

To be noted, the NGT itself struck down the grounds that

Auroville was a “deemed forest”, yet proceeded to not only

admit the case but also issue a verdict, which the Supreme

Court of India has now stayed absolutely.

This caused another two-year delay in the manifestation of

Auroville, which appears, more and more, the aim of the

faction: to obstruct the manifestation of the city; to stall and

stall again until people lose interest and the obstructing

residents win back their green exclusive fiefdoms and to keep

the 3,000 acres of Auroville land gated and guarded for the

enjoyment of a handful.

Active solutions

Contrary to false propaganda about the removal of green

cover, of attempting to implement an outdated plan, of a

narrow and rigid interpretation of the visionary and “yantric”

Galaxy Plan, the solutions which Auroville offered already

between 1965 and 1972, still remain the active solutions for