What is happening at Bharat Nivas?

History

The International Zone, also described by The Mother as the Zone of Union, aims to manifest the essential unity of mankind amid the rich diversity of the world’s distinctive cultures. As the host country, it was fitting that the Pavilion of India, Bharat Nivas, should have been the first construction in the International Zone. In fact, it was initiated by The Mother herself. Why did she find it so important?

The late Prem Malik, who for many years was part of the Bharat Nivas organizing group, remembered an interview he had with The Mother in 1970-1. He had asked her how the essential underlying unity would manifest in the different national pavilions, and she replied that the essential unity only manifests at the spiritual level. “And at this point, She made a statement that this was the reason why She wanted the Indian Pavilion to be the first to physically establish itself in the International Zone, as India was the one country which had an unbroken spiritual heritage and which could act as an example for the other pavilions to follow.”

In 1970, a national competition was held to decide upon the design and a jury consisting of Auroville architects and other personalities was set up, with the Mother as its President. The brief given to the architects was to design the buildings as a symbolic representation of the soul of India, seeking inspiration from India’s spiritual past, thought and character. The common zones as well as the sectors presenting the various Indian States were to be designed in such a way that they would bring out the essential unity of India in the midst of her rich diversity. Above all, the architecture should not be imitative of the past.

The Mother chose a design by Sri R. Chakrapani of Chennai because she felt it was the most flexible in terms of future development. The original design was for an auditorium, a restaurant, a School of Linguistics, a guest house and pavilions for the different states of India. For this purpose, the Government of India granted an initial sum of nearly Rs. 90 lakhs.

However, there was a problem. Auroville did not own the land allocated for Bharat Nivas. When Mother was informed, she simply rotated the existing Galaxy plan 50 degrees anti-clockwise so that Bharat Nivas could be constructed on land already purchased for Auroville.

Construction began in August 1971. Two years later, when the Auditorium and the adjacent round building of the restaurant and a few State pavilions were partially completed, the work came to a halt. The Sri Aurobindo Society subsequently located its Auroville office here.

In 1984 the Government of India handed over the unfinished complex to Auroville to utilise and to complete. The Centre for Research in Indian Culture was the first initiative to start in one of the unfinished pavilions and, soon after, the Centre of Indian Studies, both of which functioned together. As there were no comparable facilities elsewhere in Auroville at the time, many other Auroville groups began to use the facilities, which were gradually upgraded over time. They included the Auroville Library, the Laboratory of Evolution, Aurofuture, the Auroville Archives, the video team and SAIIER. There was a small archeological museum and the offices of the Government Administrators, and later the Auroville Foundation, were also located here. For many years, the restaurant served daily lunches and community meetings were held either in the basement of the restaurant or in the foyer of the Auditorium. In other words, Bharat Nivas became a central hub for Auroville.

During this period, which lasted some considerable time, the 650 seat Sri Aurobindo Auditorium was completed, the SAWCHU meeting space and Athiti Griha and Swagatam guest houses were constructed, and the restaurant building was converted into an arts and exhibition space called Kalakendra.

As facilities were created in other parts of Auroville, the groups started moving out again. When the Solar Kitchen was completed, the Bharat Nivas kitchen was no longer necessary. The construction of the Town Hall saw many administrative groups moving out, and the Foundation administration moved out when the Auroville Foundation building was completed. The Library now has its own purpose-built building on the Crown Road, while the recent completion of the SAIIER building has seen the SAIIER administration relocate there.

In the 1990s, a group was constituted to look again at the original design prepared by Chakrapani. They concluded that a lot of space would be wasted if the original design was followed. Roger Anger and other Auroville architects were consulted and a new proposal was agreed upon to complete Bharat Nivas without each State having a pavilion of its own.

Today

This led to another phase of construction. Today, the new building for the Centre of Indian Studies and Centre for Indian Culture, named Bhavishyate, is approaching completion. It has a conference room and flexible spaces to host classes, workshops and exhibitions, as well as facilities for researchers in residence. The first floor will house a library of Indian culture.

Once the Centre of Indian Culture and Studies moves into the new building, the ‘White Hall’ which houses it at present will become the central exhibition area. The first exhibition, which is already in place, marks the visionary union that led to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work for humanity.

Another major project under construction is the Tamil Heritage Centre. Once completed, it will have exhibition, workshop and conference spaces, and areas for the kind of dance and music for which Tamil Nadu is known widely. It will also have cafeterias and guest facilities.

Meanwhile, a new temporary guest-cum-cultural facility is coming up in the area where the somewhat dilapidated State Pavilion buildings are situated. It is designed as a space for young artists and volunteers who come to work in Bharat Nivas. It has five guest rooms, a space for workshops and even a small outdoor amphitheatre.

A sense of emptiness

Yet, for all this construction activity, the prevailing atmosphere in many of the buildings in Bharat Nivas is one of emptiness, of a lack of activity. Sitting in the office adjacent to the White Room, Anu, who is a member of the present Bharat Nivas management team, describes the difficulty. “Once the first units moved out, there was a sense of vacuum for a while. Things had to re-start, buildings completed, the work and activities of Bharat Nivas as a campus created, but it is difficult to get such things going with only a few people.” In this context, she acknowledges what a wonderful work Aster has done over the years in almost single-handedly holding the dream and consciousness for the Centre for Indian Culture and Studies.

While there are now more vacant spaces in the Bharat Nivas complex, Anu feels it would be wrong to allocate them without carefully considering how different activities will contribute to the overarching purpose. “This place is intended for expressing, in a very dynamic way, the essential unity of India which underlies its rich diversity. I think if this space functions as it should do and is alive, if all the activities here contribute to this purpose, then the rest of the International Zone, which is rather stuck at the moment, will also come alive. The two go in tandem.”

The recent creation of the Bharat Nivas Trust is important in this context. The Trust will coordinate the funding and different activities on the campus, and attempt to focus the activities of the several centres on the guidelines given by The Mother.

The future

One idea Anu mentions to dynamise this zone would be to hold a festival here every two or three years. “We have the Auditorium, Kalakendra and the central courtyard space, which could be the hub of events. It would be easy to link together, through small walking paths, the Unity Pavilion, the Tibetan Pavilion and International House, as well as Africa House, which is being constructed. All these places and the national pavilion groups could come together and see what kinds of programme we could come up with. The first festival could be in 2016.”

Such ideas make it even more important that Bharat Nivas once more has restaurant facilities. While the Indus Valley eating experiment which was attached to Kalakendra is no longer functioning, there is a plan to convert the top part of this building into a restaurant.

Where does all the funding for these projects come from? Mother, it seems, refused private funding for the construction of Bharat Nivas and the other national pavilions. She wanted the money to come from governments as a form of symbolic participation in the building of Auroville. So far, a considerable amount of the money for the construction of Bharat Nivas has come from the Central Government. It is unlikely however, that each Indian State will be willing to finance its own pavilion, as was originally intended.

“Instead,” says Anu, “the different States can be represented through temporary exhibitions or events. For example, there could be a Kerala event to coincide with the Onam festival in September. Dancers could be invited, there could be Kerala food, and perhaps we could invite prominent writers from that region.

“We would like to have at least two events connected with the States every year. The new space being constructed for artists and volunteers could be used for the arts and live performances, while the “White Room” could house exhibitions of various States.

“There is plenty to be done,” concludes Anu, “but we can only fund things step-by-step and we need people to come and work with us. One of the remaining projects has to do with the grounds. We would like to have herb gardens and groves of fruit trees and, as Mother said that each Pavilion should have its own, typical vegetation, it would be interesting to incorporate that idea too. But this is for the long-term.”

So is Bharat Nivas about to manifest its true form? It is too soon to say. While the emphasis over recent years seems to have been upon construction, now is the time to make these buildings come alive with activities. And this needs people, commitment, creativity. Is Auroville ready, at last, to make the pavilion of its host country the beating heart of the International Zone?