The proposed Line of Goodwill

Auroville Today: Let’s start with a question that keeps coming up. This is a very large project - are we ready for such a project in Auroville at this time?

Judith: I think there’s a kind of question with the 50th anniversary coming up about what are we celebrating? Personally, I believe that gradual development over the last 50 years has not built the city The Mother envisaged. We must stay true to the Charter and get serious about manifesting what Auroville has been telling the world. We’ve had 50 years of the preparatory stage, and it is imperative that we act now. We came here as workers for a dream that was advertised in 1968 and the dream hasn’t changed. We are responsible for getting on with the job. Succeed or fail, we must do it.

Torkil: That’s why the challenges and all those things are minor to us. The main thing is to get out of the situation we are in now. Some people want to keep Auroville as it is. They say, “Why should we take bigger steps, because that can be risky.” A collective is always risk-averse. But I think the riskiest thing we can do in Auroville is to keep the status quo. There are many eco-villages that were set up in the world and which have collapsed. Auroville continues because it has a higher ideal.

Judith: It’s risky at many levels, not just in a practical way. If you come to Auroville and do not follow The Mother’s dream, do not do your dharma, that’s also a kind of a risk.

How did the project start and how has it reached its current form?

Torkil: There are three parts of the origin story. Matrimandir access, economy and habitat.

Judith: At the Matrimandir end, it started with the Matrimandir Access Planning Group some years ago. The lake around the Matrimandir was planned to appear soon and within five years all the offices would have to go. So, we had to come up with a plan for a Reception Pavilion near the West entrance. At the same time, the main place to receive visitors would continue to be the Visitors Centre. That’s where we receive people, do bookings, and sort people between those who go to the viewing point and those who go for concentration. But then we have the problem of people moving between the Visitors Centre and Matrimandir. Somebody said we can build some sort of tramway. We sat with a map to figure out what route the tramway should take and we were told, “You can’t go there because that’s the Line of Force.” Then we realised that Roger Anger, who had conceived of the Galaxy, had drawn a radial down the middle of the Line of Force. That’s where the tramway or monorail or moving sidewalk must come. So, we came to the conclusion that we have to build the Line of Force. We soon lost momentum, but I could not forget about it. I wrote it all down and somehow that paper started to circulate.

Uma: During the Retreat in 2015, there were five or six of us in the economy group who started thinking about what could be done to create a radical shift in our economy. Not a 10% change, but a 110% change. The way in which we are going is not going to work. Today we are primarily a cottage economy. We make clothes, incense, pottery and take it to the Visitors Centre to sell it. We need a platform to showcase and exchange ideas in everything we do – sustainability, farming, research, education, healing, hospitality. There must be infrastructure created for this new economy to be born. While we were brewing this idea, there was an email from Anu which talked about “the city that we forgot.” The whole idea came together and the project became much bigger. So much has happened in the last three months.

Torkil: It is a paradox in Auroville that we have so much land, but if you want to build anything it’s very hard to get permission. On the other hand, if you walk this Line of Force, you will see that all the land is reserved for building. There’s no existing building within 800 metres. Somehow, town planning has worked. So, when we were thinking of building for the new economy it had to be in one of the Lines of Force, because you can’t build these things outside, they were never meant to be outside.

Anu: One thing that has fascinated me is that Auroville’s Charter was written after the city plan was finalised. The city plan is a map for human unity. And one of the key elements of that plan are the Lines of Force. As the population increases, the “face of the city” has to emerge. And the face, or form, is defined by the Lines of Force. We’ve had this tendency to look at Lines of Force negatively, whereas much of this experimentation, whether environmental and otherwise, is embedded in that plan. It’s time to look at it differently. So, if you look at this big Line of Force, you will see all of the different elements – economy, ecology, habitat, Matrimandir – flowing with a sense of collaboration. This space for collaboration is the brief we gave to Anupama Kundoo. When she started meeting people, there were many who became interested and wanted to be a part of the project. Bit by bit, all the elements came together.

In your presentation to the community you talked about housing for 8,000 people. Is it possible to grow so quickly?

Anu: If we don’t grow now in terms of human resources, we are going to stagnate. We have come 50 years and reached 2,500 people – fewer if you count only adults. We need to make a leap to at least ten thousand residents. Once you have a critical mass, it opens up many possibilities.

I remember an interview with Henk Thomas, where he told us that we want everything but we are not willing to take the next step. If we want a moneyless economy, we need 30,000 to 40,000 people to enable the self-generative cycle.

Judith: For me, the Galaxy has always been there. And with this big Line of Force, it is going to be an adventure trying to build it. Let us throw ourselves into the impossible, because that’s what we are here to do. Also, we need to build this to address the need for high-density housing, but in a new and innovative way.

Torkil: The main thing that blocks Auroville’s progress is not money. It’s not land. It’s human resources. We simply do not have enough people to make Auroville self-sustaining. Also, a lot of people would like to join Auroville, but they don’t have the financial means to do that. We must find a way.

Some people are apprehensive about such a large residential block with people living in close proximity. How do you respond to them? There have also been some questions about sustainability and noise pollution.

Anu: It’s not just about parking people in apartments. This is not a high-rise apartment block, but a porous structure with many open pathways. There’s a very large amount of green space. This is about creating a certain context for an experiment, for a circulation of energies. We must take a leap by doing this and give a fillip to the manifestation of culture. After all, this is a human experiment. Also, we must not forget that if we don’t build the city, we won't fulfill the experiment. We have done the first part – protected the land and created the forests. Now we must take the next step.

Judith: I feel there’s an urgency to create this “hillscape” environment for social living. People will be living in intentional families using collective spaces; spaces for living, working, learning, shopping, hospitality, research and education; a place for commercial units to exchange knowledge, contacts and connections. This will be Auroville’s gift to the world – how we can live in dense urban environments that are beautiful, green and socially-vibrant. An urban design that enhances and protects the environment.

Anu: We must also remember that we are in the initial phase of the project, in which Anupama is doing an Urban Design Study. We are nowhere near an architectural design, so a lot of the questions about building material and noise are premature.

What about visitors? How will they interact with the Line of Goodwill?

Judith: A new conception of a gateway is needed, a gateway to Auroville. We need to make sure that visitors don’t show up just to see ‘the golden globe’. We want people to know they have arrived in Auroville. We want to change the flavour of tourism. We don’t want people doing the conventional things – a bit of shopping, a bit of eating, an exhibition that they don’t pay much attention to, and taking some photos. Right now, we don’t know who any of these visitors are, how they feel about Auroville, what they could plug into and be interested in. Auroville should be connecting with these 700,000 people who visit annually. We must rethink the whole thing and create a designed experience.

Uma: Even if visitors come for a few hours, they should be able to experience Auroville – what it is, what it dreamed to be. We have a lot to offer, but our visitors get no experience of it.

Torkil: We will soon have one million tourists. If we use these resources in a much more conscious way, it will benefit both Auroville and the visitors. A few people might be coming just to see the golden globe, but a lot of people are coming who want to be touched, who are ready to be touched. Why are we not able to engage with them? We need a gateway to Auroville, where you come to participate and engage in a two-way communication.

In what ways do you think this project will make an impact on Auroville?

Uma: Inside Auroville it will create a lot of possibilities at three different levels. Firstly, it will be possible to live and work without any exchange of money because all the different aspects of life are integrated within the Line of Goodwill. Secondly, there will be a shift in collective prosperity. Currently, our individual economy is rich, but our collective economy is poor. This will change because we will be able to move to a thriving knowledge economy. And finally, our youth will have the possibility to stay here rather than go out. In the current cottage economy, they can only become a supervisor. Who is interested in that? There must be more meaning and challenge in work. In addition, Auroville will create a meaningful experience for visitors, instead of them driving round everywhere trying to make sense of the place.

Jaya: The first thing is that doing more of the same thing will not make a difference. But I want to talk about two other groups of people who will be impacted – volunteers and youth from the bio-region. A lot of volunteers come to Auroville. It is amazing how people give up well-paying jobs to work with us, but we can’t even give them a free lunch. Volunteers can be engaged in a meaningful way to build this project. In the bio-region, more and more youth are well educated with professional skills. India has shifted and Auroville must respond to this shift to provide jobs.

Judith: I think we will become more connected with people of goodwill. Auroville will have a bigger resource pool in terms of all aspects of research. If we are going to be doing something extraordinary, there will be people who will be delighted to participate. If we do something mediocre, we will not catch their interest. We need to open that door. There’s going to be a big shift.

What about financing? How are you thinking of raising money?

Anu: On 17th May, 1968, The Mother answered two questions about money. The first question was, “Firstly, is there something specific being done which is impeding the flow of money to Auroville?” to which she replied, “It is the lack of push towards the future that impedes the flow of money.” The second question was, “Secondly, is there something specific which should be done to increase the flow of money to Auroville?” to which she replied, “A confident certitude in the inevitable future can break this resistance.”

Torkil: The Line of Goodwill has to be something remarkable – it has to show the best that is possible. And when you do something extraordinary, people are willing to be a part of it and finance it. I don’t think finance is the one of the biggest challenges in this project.

What are your next steps? Any other challenges that you anticipate?

Uma: We have commissioned the Urban Design Study to come up with definitions and materials needed for a Site Permission by Auroville’s 50th birthday. During those celebrations, we would also like to lay the foundation stone of the Line of Goodwill. In the next five years, we would like to complete the Gateway, which will be the entry to Auroville, complete the mobility link from the Gateway to the Matrimandir, and complete the housing part for about 2500 people. This is not just another building project, so to talk of challenges will be to make things petty. We would rather send out an invitation to collaborate.