Letters to the Editor from Aurovilians

Dear Auroville Today team,

This refers to the following paragraph in the otherwise excellent article ‘Heeding the call: Sustainability for south India and Beyond’ that appeared on the first page of Auroville Today’s December 2014 issue:

“From the very beginning Auroville endeavoured to share itself with the people of its region – including the ‘first Aurovilians’ as Mother once called the villagers within the area – through bridging the vast cultural and economic gaps.”

The fact that this paragraph was written just some months ago indicates that there is still in some of us the belief that Mother once made a statement to the effect that the local Tamil people are “the first Aurovilians”. This is a misunderstanding that stems from a memo dating back to 1970 drafted by Varadharajan (then living in Promesse).

At that time there was, understandably, locally some unease regarding Auroville, with rumours being spread around the villages that people were to be forcibly evicted from their houses to make way for the upcoming international township etc. This naturally sparked off an atmosphere of distrust and hostility, with the result that there were threats of violence against those living on the land and trying to lay the groundwork for Auroville’s development. In a move intended to correct these false rumours and calm things down, Varadharajan – who was at the time doing liaison work between Pondicherry, the Aurovilians and local villagers – drafted a memo to be sent around in the area. He first offered it to the Mother for her approval. She added a short sentence (shown in bold below) and gave her blessings. The opening statement of the memo reads as follows:

“The advent of Auroville in Tamilnadu has given a new hope and cheer to the people. The first citizens of Auroville are those Tamil people who live on the soil of Auroville. The Tamil culture which is one of the oldest in the world has a unique role to play in the city of Auroville, which is coming up with the cooperation of various nations of the world and various states of India.

Some people out of their various self-interests are spreading the false propaganda that Auroville is not beneficial to the people, and does not help the poor. But we see today in society that the rich are becoming richer and the poor, poorer. It is against this calamity that Auroville wants to fight. Auroville wants to show a new way of life.”

The two key points to note here are:

(a ) it was not Mother who used the words “first citizens of Auroville” in regard to the local villagers; it was Varadharajan. Mother merely endorsed the use of his memo as a liaison tool with her blessings.

(b) at the time of the memo, and continuing throughout Mother’s remaining life, no-one was accepted as “Aurovilian” without Mother’s personal approval. In other words, even though Mother seemed to endorse the concept of the local people being the first citizens of the land or area of Auroville, which of course they were and continue to be in a broad literal sense, it didn’t make them “Aurovilians”. The latter status was something separate and special, which was given to a number of village families who specifically asked to join Auroville at the time, later known as the “integrated families”. The other villagers were not seen as Aurovilian, without applying and being accepted as such by the Mother; nowadays the Entry Group.