Bringing Auroville to Kolkata: the latest edition of the Journey of Auroville Festival

Even from our initial scouting trips, it was clear that our approach for the Journey of Auroville festival in Kolkata, widely considered to be the cultural capital of India, would need to be tailored to the unique context of the city, where not only much of the population is already well-acquainted with Sri Aurobindo and his legacy, but also ready to deeply engage on the subject of Auroville. After all, Kolkata was the site of Sri Aurobindo’s birth, of his rise to prominence in the nationalist movement, of his imprisonment for a year, and of intense spiritual experiences that heralded his transformation from freedom fighter to yogi.

During our encounters with the residents, the Bengali concept of adda – informal intellectual exchanges between people – was palpable to us as a casual remark would result in long conversations about Auroville’s development challenges or debates over Sri Aurobindo’s departure from revolutionary activity (all over several cups of tea). Facts and texts would be invoked to support statements made, not just hearsay or opinions.

The importance of literature and the written word could be seen all across Kolkata, whether in the street-side book sellers, the continued presence of the National Library of India in Kolkata despite the shift of the capital to Delhi over a century ago, or the verbose slogans graffitied on the walls of Jadavpur University.

In our previous festival in Baroda, our overall theme was ‘reconnecting with Sri Aurobindo’ and we particularly explored expert-level connections between Aurovilians and the students and faculty from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, where Sri Aurobindo was a professor. In contrast, the schedule for the Kolkata Festival evolved into a series of four evening events open to the general public and united by the theme of ‘turning points’, referring to Sri Aurobindo’s own turning point from Aurobindo Ghose to Sri Aurobindo in Kolkata, the turning points in the lives of individual Aurovilians, and the turning point that this golden jubilee represents for Auroville as a whole.

The press conference took place a week before the opening of the festival. After the introductory videos and our overview of the festival, the thought-provoking questions from the assembled journalists set the tone for the rest of the festival. As it was the eve of the birthday of Subhas Chandra Bose, Bengal’s revolutionary and much-celebrated hero who challenged the British during the Second World War with his controversial attempts to ally with Germany and Japan, there were a number of political questions about Sri Aurobindo as journalists fierily asked if he was an escapist. This was swiftly rebutted by Ranjan Mitter of The Future Foundation School.

When the festival commenced on 28 January, we were able to incorporate these important themes into the series of events. Exploration of Savitri was a recurrent motif throughout the festival, as a way of connecting with the literary culture of Bengal through Auroville’s own foundational literature. At the opening itself, a screening of excerpts from ‘Savitri Around the World’ started the events. Following Dr. Karan Singh’s opening address, Grace Gitadelila and Savitri Maya performed selections from the original SEAS performance (Soul Encounters for the Auroville Soul). Vibrant video images from last year’s performance at the Matrimandir set the backdrop for their dance, tracing the soul’s evolutionary journey as portrayed in Savitri. And later in the festival, a preview of Vast, directed by Phillip Pelen Baldini and performed by Thierry Moucazambo and Gopal Dalami, explored the quest to find one’s inner ‘vastness’, a recurring theme in Savitri and Sri Aurobindo’s other writings.

The literary theme continued with a donation of almost forty books written by Aurovilian authors to the National Library, as a first step toward establishing a regular contribution of Auroville’s literary output to this national depository.

To create a forum for much-wanted discussion, two events were held: a storytelling session around the theme of ‘turning points’ at the Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata, to give insight into the personal stories of Aurovilians, and a panel discussion at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations on the themes of cultural integration, unending education, social enterprise, and a no-money-circulation economy.

Exchange also took the form of learning experiences for the Aurovilians who were in Kolkata as festival contributors, particularly with the profound experience of visiting the Alipore Jail and Courthouse. Absorbing the meditative environment of Sri Aurobindo’s jail cell or walking through the courtroom-turned-museum where Sri Aurobindo, his brother Barin, and 37 others were tried in the Alipore Bomb Case made us all recipients of Sri Aurobindo’s greater legacy.

And exchange took an internal form in the diverse mix that comprised the festival participants. Old-time Aurovilian, volunteer, Auroville Foundation official, Governing Board member, and Auroville well-wisher worked together. People from the Kolkatan community also came forward to contribute their skills and speak on behalf of Auroville: Ranjan Mitter chaired the panel discussion; renowned dancer Alokananda Roy performed at the Sri Aurobindo Bhavan in honour of Auroville; Darshan Shah of Weavers Studio organized an informal gathering; noted architect and business magnate Shanta Ghosh hosted a lavish lunch; Maina Bhagat of the famed Oxford Bookstore connected us with the pulse of Kolkata’s cultural scene; and the author who served as our PR consultant, Arindam Basu, gave his own ‘lay’ perspective on Auroville during the storytelling event. On the institutional level, we were able to partner with the Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, the Alliance Française du Bengale, and the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata.

We returned to Auroville with a new appreciation of Auroville’s historical and philosophical origins and exciting prospects for future connections with the individuals and organizations that we had met. As we look ahead toward Sri Aurobindo’s sesquicentennial in 2022, we hope that our two communities will be able to continue to celebrate our connection and mutual respect for Sri Aurobindo.