Letter on the Auroville crisis

As an outsider, and also one who has never stayed in Auroville, and yet a strong well-wisher of its success, I only hope more recognition of the importance of Auroville is recognised by the larger world before it is too late.

I would like to use this opportunity to make a possible suggestion for the resolution of the crisis without imposing any preconditions to the different sides. This is based on a statement of The Mother in 1966 when there were some discords in relation to the Lake Estate that was being developed at that time.

The Mother had written at that time: “Lake Estate. It is only in harmonious collaboration that effective work can be done. The important thing is to find the point on which you can all agree – and after this is firmly established each one must be ready to yield his personal will in order to keep intact this point of harmony. Blessings. 29 March, 1966.” (As related by Prakash Patel in an interview with Narad).

Taking a cue from this, if the representatives of the Governing Board and Aurovilian residents agree on some central issues and then slowly enlarge the agreement, maybe some progress at resolution could be achieved. For example, even the agreement to the statement made by The Mother above could be a starting point. Other starting points where all could agree might be “Auroville’s uniqueness lies in its spiritual dimension”, “Auroville’s governance can be improved”, “The progress of Auroville might be slower than one would have hoped for” and such like. Using statements that all sides agree upon and then each one yielding a little ground at each stage could assist in bringing everyone together without preconditions and then slowly enlarging the discussions.

With all good wishes,

Anand K Bachhawat

Emeritus Professor (Biology) 

Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Mohali

Knowledge City, SAS Nagar

Sector 81,

P.O.Manauli 140306, Punjab

INDIA