Journey of Auroville festival in Vadodara

A few months back, we started making plans for the first Journey of Auroville festival – to the city of Vadodara (earlier called Baroda) located in Gujarat. We called it the Journey of Auroville: Baroda Festival as a nod to Baroda College, the predecessor of The Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda, where Sri Aurobindo was a member of the faculty and Vice Principal after his return from England in 1893. The festival took place from 25th to 30th September 2018 in Vadodara. While far from comprehensive, the festival aimed to give a sampling of the manifestations of Auroville’s vision, through art, theatre, dance, music, education, outreach, architecture, and bringing Aurovilians and Barodians together to create meaningful interactions around common areas of expertise.

The opening ceremony took place on 25th September on the campus of MSU, which was also the location for most of the events of the festival. Dr. Karan Singh, Chairman of the Auroville Foundation, recounted the importance of Vadodara in the transformation of Aurobindo Ghose when he addressed a packed auditorium of over 400 individuals from Vadodara as well as other parts of Gujarat such as Surat and Ahmedabad. He concluded his remarks by stating that the festival would help to “reconnect Sri Aurobindo with Baroda, and Baroda with Sri Aurobindo.” Dr. Karan Singh was joined on the dais by Rajmata Shubhangini Raje Gaekwad, not only the Chancellor of MSU but also from the family of Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the Maharaja of Baroda State in the late 19th century, who met the young Aurobindo Ghose in England and recruited him for the revenue service in Baroda State. The Rajmata’s presence on the dais and her support of the Journey of Auroville events beautifully symbolized the exploration and relinking of Sri Aurobindo’s history and spiritual development with the Auroville of today. The opening ceremony concluded with a concert by Nadaka, Gopika, and Keshava of Raga Mantra Trio, embodying the fusion of cultures and artistic focus that so characterizes Auroville.

The focal point of the festival was in the historic Premanand Hall in the Faculty of Arts, a stunning domed building from 1880 that was designed by architect Robert Chisholm, and where Sri Aurobindo’s office room was still maintained in his honor. The large-scale yet mobile Auroville exhibition which was first fabricated for the Auroville Expo in Delhi was erected on the ground floor, with a Savitri corner, brochures, and a talking corner for interested students, faculty, and others. Around the corner in the Sri Aurobindo Seminar Hall, we hosted a different film from Auroville every day, including “City of the Dawn”, “What Keeps You Here”, “The City the Earth Needs”, and “The Great Adventure” (which was also screened at the Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Kendra in the neighboring city of Vallabh Vidyanagar).

Throughout the week, Marc and Ok of Upcycling Studio conducted an art camp on the campus of the Maharaja Ranjitsinh Institute of Design (MRID), part of the Faculty of Fine Arts at MSU, where they had a group of about 50 students transforming clean waste into objects of beauty and practicality. Supported by Prof. Rutvij Mistry and Prof. Anju Pawar of MSU, they created artwork, fashion accessories, and everyday household items from old circuit boards, plastic bottles, CDs, cardboard, and more, which were displayed in a two-day exhibition of their creative philosophy and conceptions.

Across the campus, Philippe, Thierry, Barbara, and Delhi-based modern dancer Gopal Dalami put on a striking performance of their work-in-progress production, Vast, at the Faculty of Performing Arts. This two-performer piece explores the themes of solitude and the vast. They also offered a body movement experience for students, which Philippe described as “an approach to find the performer’s creativity through body movement”.

As another cultural highlight, Kalvi and Agila performed a trio of Odissi dances in three venues, showing their unique individual repertoires and harmonious style. This dance offering was a particular treat for the community in Vadodara as most dance schools there focus on Bharatnatyam.

A succession of seminars and lectures was organized at the Faculty of Education and Psychology and at the Faculty of Social Work, beginning with Kavitha Urvasie facilitating an interactive session to explore the meanings of service, education and offering, based on the work done by YouthLink in Auroville.

Jürgen Axer gave a lecture on integral education in Auroville, where the audience of teachers-in-training was challenged to think beyond their preconceptions on educational philosophy. Ribhu of WasteLess gave an interactive seminar on the role of education in waste management, which saw energetic student participation.

Aurovilian architects and planners Mona, Lara, Lalit, and Shailaja joined us on 28 September for a special architecture symposium organized in collaboration with the Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID) – Vadodara Chapter, which took place at the Federation of Gujarat Industries Auditorium. They showcased a wide selection of the finest examples of Auroville architecture around the themes of planning, building materials, earthen construction, and innovation, while also highlighting the distinctive environment that has shaped its built forms. In the words of Mona, “Auroville is sustainable by necessity, not by choice”.

The Sri Aurobindo Nivas hosted a special lecture on Sri Aurobindo’s Five Dreams given by Dr. Karan Singh, as well as an Odissi performance and film screening on its annual day. The Sri Aurobindo Nivas provided a powerful backdrop for these events, as it was the house where Sri Aurobindo lived for the majority of the years he spent in Vadodara. The cool halls of the house still reverberate with his presence.

The festival came to a close on 30 September with a performance of Bhu, the Kalaripayattu-inspired performance developed by Philippe and Thierry, which received an exceptional standing ovation from the entire audience. Dazzled members of the audience then walked up to us to say this performance had surpassed anything that Vadodara had ever hosted before.

Throughout the festival, connections were forged between Aurovilians and the numerous Barodians who took part in the events, thus reinforcing the community-to-community approach that we aimed to embody. In concentrating the festival on the university campus and focusing on youth, a lively dynamic of interchange was established, with the goal of inspiring general awareness of the aims and ideals of Auroville in this new generation of Indians, perhaps leading to visits, volunteering, and general collaboration with Auroville.

But this national event was not just beneficial in terms of outreach. It had a uniquely galvanizing effect on the spirit of community of those who participated, as multiple participants indicated. “Being outside Auroville with Aurovilians is always something I really enjoy. It gives me the special feeling, this magical sense of community. In Baroda, I was filled with positivity, I could see the magic spark in the eyes of each of the Aurovilians there,” said Ribhu.

On behalf of our core team of Ankita, Hilary, Jürgen, and Ravi, we thank all the people from Auroville and elsewhere who came to Vadodara to contribute in different ways to this festival. Finally, a special thanks to Dr. Karan Singh for his rousing speech at the inauguration ceremony, his talk at Sri Aurobindo Nivas, and for being a strong supporter of the Journey of Auroville project to help Auroville celebrate its journey over the past 50 years while renewing and establishing our links in India.