The Auroville Economy: Unity without uniformity

The purpose of this seminar was to arrive at concrete proposals to help Auroville move towards the realization of its ideals. The main topics: how can we create a viable economy for Auroville? In what ways can we ensure a basic minimum of food, clothing, health care and shelter for every Aurovilian? What should be the relation between work and money? What are the wider implications for our society of an inequality of financial possibilities? In short: how can we move towards another system, more true to our inner aspirations, more close to Her Dream?

Some 35 Aurovilians participated in this seminar; they studied Auroville’s past economic experiments and the present economic set-up of Auroville and they discussed the ideal Auroville economy and the ways to get there. 

The seminar started with a recitation of the Ganesh mantra. It was followed by an introductory session in which Auroville’s past economic systems were reviewed. All participants expressed their expectations (which, among others, were: to come closer to Mother’s Dream; to acquire more information on our economic functioning; to realize a change of consciousness) and everybody was given the opportunity to read a compilation of what Mother has said on the Auroville economy.

In the afternoon, through a skillful use of different group dynamic techniques, a wealth of ideas were generated. The next day, the seminar concentrated on the major ideas which had come up the previous day and tried to formulate concrete proposals.

A “bowl of spaghetti” was the description thought to be most fitting for the incoming and outgoing money-flows of Auroville. At present, Auroville’s main sources of income, listed in order of magnitude, are: individual monies, foreign donations, Indian donations, government grants and contributions from Auroville commercial units. The major source is individual monies: it is the Aurovilians themselves who by their initiative, their work, the input of their money, their capacity to generate and attract funds for development have created the majority of Auroville’s assets and made possible the many activities we see today in Auroville. “If it was not for us, Auroville would not be there”, exclaimed one of the participants, when she realised that the major income source, the ‘private’ money, greatly exceeded the total of all other income sources. 

In recent years, the development of Auroville’s economy has taken a turn which is quite common and accepted else where in the world, but which does not reflect Auroville’s aspirations. Two groups have developed: the “earning side” (productive units) and the “spending side” (community services, etc). And with the development of these two groups, strong differences emerged, both in income and in attitudes. Each group has a major objection to the other, which roughly comes down to the following:

‘Spenders’ say of ‘earners’ that they do not contribute sufficiently to the collective and if they do, they wish to decide themselves where the money goes.

‘Earners’ against ‘spenders’: they do not work sufficiently for the collective, and do not trouble themselves to organize their units in such a way as to reduce spending to the minimum.

One clear conclusion was that a decent, basic minimum should be guaranteed for each Aurovilian, that this basic maintenance should be related to work for the collectivity, but that it should be independent of where one works and what kind of work one does, so that one can really choose one’s work from within.

The amount of that basic minimum was soon agreed upon: Rs 1,000 per month, instead of the present insufficient average of max. Rs 600 per month. It was also agreed that, in order to cover the costs of collective services like health, house building and repairs, administration, road repair and so on, each Aurovilian should contribute to the collective a certain amount per month.

Mother has mentioned that each Aurovilian should work at least five hours a day for the collective, for six days a week. With this in mind, agreement was reached that the right to a basic minimum should be linked to the obligation to work these minimum hours for the collective. At present, what ‘work for the collective’ does and does not include, and how to practically realize the ideal that all Aurovilians receive the basic minimum, is being studied by a group that was set up to investigate how to realize this proposal. This study group would also start to collect the facts and figures of Auroville’s economy, about which no one has a clear picture at present. Other topics were studied as well, such as economic development and planning, and investment in AuroviIle’s future: in the economy and education. 

The seminar has been a step towards a more conscious effort of the community to improve its economy. It has served in the first place as a forum where the many different ideas and attitudes among us could be expressed, exchanged, listed and listened to. The seminar was a very positive experience of collective research and has started a process which hopefully will lead to a more conscious, transparent and collective economy.