The Auroville Literature Festival

The first Auroville Literature Festival took place on 25 to 27 August in the Sri Aurobindo auditorium of Bharat Nivas, Savitri Bhavan and the Unity Pavilion of the International Zone. It not only brought together some of the best writers, thinkers and poets from India and abroad on the works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, but also addressed issues of Auroville’s town development. The festival, which was announced as the culminating event of Sri Aurobindo’s 150th anniversary commemoration, was made possible with the collaboration of the Chennai International Centre, a not-for-profit organization whose objective it is to foster the exchange of knowledge and ideas across various disciplines including the arts, education, business, finance, science and technology; and the Valley of Words International Literature and Arts International Festival Shabdavali, a not for-profit and volunteer driven initiative of the Valley of Words Foundation Trust. Funding was provided by the Ministry of Culture and the Auroville Foundation.

The festival partners, speakers and moderators participated in forum discussions – a few of which were online – on a wide range of issues such as Understanding History and Historical Perspectives; Reading Sri Aurobindo; Exploring Sustainability and Auroville as a Model Town; The Landscape of Heroism; Real Life and the Logic of Fiction; The Mountain and the Artist; Writing for Operas / Writing for a City; Perceptions of Reality; The Magic of the Soul in Writing; and Making Change Happen. Specific books of Sri Aurobindo were also discussed, such as Savitri, The Future Poetry, The Life Divine and The Secret of the Vedas. The book The Deliverance by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya, translated by Dilip Kumar Roy and revised by Sri Aurobindo with a preface of Rabindrath Tagore, was launched by Governing Board member Dr. Goutam Ghosal.

There was also an evening offering of JAYA, I want life!, a dance theatre performance by artists from the Surya Performance Lab, Auroville.