The monetary contamination of the Auroville economy

“Money is the visible sign of a universal force, and this force in its manifestation on earth work on the vital and physical plains and is indispensable to the fullness of outer life. In its origin and in its true action it belongs to the Divine.”    The Mother

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother spoke more than a half a century ago, long before the full monetization, mercantilisation and financialisation of our societies, about money and its role in the development of humankind. They recognized its power and strength, both for good and for great evil. And although money has become increasingly central to our lives, choices and relationships with one another and with nature, permeating and subtly influencing our visions and actions, the necessary alternatives, the necessary diversity, the necessary critique is rather absent, silent and has lost its momentum. From my perspective, this is particularly true in Auroville, where I argue that a full monetary contamination of community life and common vision is currently taking place under everyone’s nose and eyes and yet passes unchecked, unrivalled, unquestioned. Auroville stands today, more than ever, fully exposed to the laws of international markets and international finance that impose their rules, their prices and their own logic on this small community, once a utopian protected project towards human unity. Its monetary exposure comes from three main sources: the overflow of guests and visitors that bring lahks of rupees well within the community and that due to their growing scale start to disrupt and change the economic system and nature of Auroville, converting more and more community assets to Guest Houses, cafés, shops, Yoga centres, etc; the openness of commercial units to exports and trade in international markets which forces them into competition-like behaviours such as turnover maximization and higher capital intensity; and finally, the lack of self-sufficiency in terms of basic needs such as food which forces Auroville to be dependent in outside supply and by doing so subjecting itself to outside imposed rules and prices. These threefold factors added to the relevant issue that Auroville does not, surprisingly, have its own sovereign money resulting in a progressive, invisible corruption of the Auroville economy by the neoclassic financial market logic which uses money as its own Trojan horse.

Now, this is not an inevitability and Auroville certainly possesses the resources, the creativity and the resilience to transform this process into an opportunity for community re-engagement, bonding and aliveness. In my opinion five core actions would be required: (1) create and promote monetary diversity, specifically Auroville’s own internal money un-pegged from the Indian Rupee that serves the community – assuming that this would at all be possible in India and not go against any Indian laws; (2) decouple the Auroville economy from the international markets; (3) increase investments and community focus into developing its own production capacity of basic needs, namely food; (4) create buffer zones and regulate monetary contamination in commercial units by separating and controlling financial flows, allowing them to continue their exports but not allowing these to spill over to the community; (5) and finally, better regulate and internalize the overflow of guests and visitors so that they do not become the priority and the focus of the karma yoga of the community but rather serve its higher purpose with other means rather than money.

These proposals, to be effective, need a collective planned action which targets all of them simultaneously while envisioning a sustainable pathway for that once radical idea of a full no-money economy, a gift economy, inside Auroville. And although many dangers lie ahead, namely the bureaucratization of economic life, it’s possible, it’s doable, and Auroville has the people and the vision to pull it off and be a model for the future.

Filipe Moreira Alves

M.Sc. Economics and Public Policies

Lisbon, Portugal

(a visitor to Auroville)