Deep dialogue for harmony

At the recommendation of Dena Meriam, Chairperson of International Advisory Council, the Governing Board and Secretary, Auroville Foundation, Mr. Raghu Ananthanarayanan, founder of the Sumedhas Academy for Human Process, was invited to ‘help address some of the core issues dividing the community’ with the purpose of ‘enabling the stakeholders of Auroville to arrive at a consensus and commit to a way forward’.

Consequently, Mr Raghu had Zoom conversations with a variety of Aurovilians and groups to help him understand the present situation.

Some Aurovilians were concerned that the intention was to mediate the present conflict, and pointed out that the present environment was not conducive to this, and the stated aims did not acknowledge the core issue which, in their opinion, is an ongoing hostile environment created by the Secretary.

Mr. Raghu responded that after meeting with team members from the Resident Assembly Service (RAS), Auroville Council (AVC) and messages exchanged with both sets of the Working Groups (appointed by the AV Foundation Office and the selection process facilitated by the RAS), he understood that not everyone is ready for a formal dialogue process, but he remained open to hearing from anybody who wished to contact him.