Craking the Crown conundrum

By all accounts, the new Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, Dr. Jayanti Ravi, has shown remarkable zeal and persistence in trying to resolve long pending issues. Twelve days after she took office [on July 5th, 2021, eds.] the local authorities, at her demand and insistence, evicted the encroachers from a house in Auro-Orchard and demolished it. This issue had been pending for years. More importantly, she announced to the enthusiasm of all present that she would initiate proceedings to acquire all the privately-owned lands in the City Area of Auroville and assured that obtaining the funds for these acquisitions would be no problem. Overruling objections of some of the members of the Working Committee, she also issued an Office Order giving two-year appointments to all the members, including new ones, of the Auroville Town Development Council (hereafter referred to as the TDC). Though the legality of these appointments is still being debated and may be the subject of a meeting of the Residents’ Assembly, the decision itself shows her commitment to getting things done, in this case to start work on the Detailed Development Plans as prescribed in Auroville’s Master Plan (Perspective 2025) – plans which were never made. She has also launched regular lengthy working sessions with members of the Working Committee and the TDC.

In an interview with The Hindu on August 7th, [Dr. Ravi is the first Auroville Foundation Secretary ever to give an interview to a national newspaper, eds.] she listed land acquisition as one of her priorities and advocated her mission-mode approach to advance The Mother’s vision for Auroville as laid down in the Master Plan, with a focus on “attaining the closest approximation of The Mother’s ideal with zero-to-minimum compromise.” She stated that the development of Auroville has to be wholly community driven and that her role is more of a facilitator. In response to a question on how to manage diversity and evolve a consensus on the way forward, Dr. Ravi said that she is optimistic that even in a situation of conflicting views, the shared vision would ultimately prevail as a unifying force for the community.

One of those conflicting views, on which no shared vision has yet been reached, is the Crown – a circular throughway or corridor that encircles the Matrimandir. The Crown has been a bone of contention for years; tempers flared up most recently when an attempt was made to lay a high tension cable following the routing of the Crown through Bliss Forest and the Youth Centre, without the buy-in of the concerned communities. [Auroville Today reported on this in its February 2021 issue #379.]

On July 29th, a week before the interview was published, Dr Ravi invited all the residents to join a Crown Walk and Talk event, which happened on July 31st. The Walk started at Savitri Bhavan and culminated at the Unity Pavilion with the Talk, an open discussion about the Crown “in order to find a harmonious and collaborative way forward towards its manifestation.”

About 200 people participated in the Walk during which one of the participants, at the request of Dr. Ravi, recited Mother’s student prayer of January 6th, 1952: “Make of us the hero warriors we aspire to become, may we fight successfully the great battle of the future that is to be borne against the past that seeks to endure so that new things may manifest and we may be ready to receive them.” This evoked a varied response. The subsequent Talk on the purpose, features and possibilities of the Crown was introduced by the Secretary, saying that the discussion should not focus on whether or not there should be a Crown, because that decision had already been taken by The Mother, but that people should express what they thought about the Crown.

Most were positive: some felt that the walk had been historic, that they were discovering together something which had been missing and that, hopefully, the Crown would open up new life in the city and become a ‘Crown of Unity’ which would bring everybody together. Some others were appalled and expressed concerns: that the road would cross forests and residences; that a road would be built without a proper mobility plan; and that, contrary to the Galaxy, the Master Plan is not dynamic and doesn’t take into account the existing ground realities, such as canyons.

The next day, the TDC and the Working Committee jointly announced that a survey would start to complete the Crown on the lands owned by Auroville. The Crown, envisaged as a 70-meters wide area which would have residences and parks, would be in accordance with the Master Plan; but the width of the road inside the Crown would be reduced from 30 to 16.7 metres; 6.7 metres for the road itself and 5 metres for each of the road’s shoulders. That same week, the Secretary, accompanied by members of the TDC and the Working Committee, had meetings on site with those who would be affected by the Crown, in particular the residents of the Youth Centre and the stewards of the Bliss Forest, and the residents of Darkali and Centre Field.

Responses

As could be expected, the Walk and Talk evoked both positive and negative responses. On August 1st, a petition was circulated raising objections to the rigid interpretation of the “Galaxy” concept as “Mother’s plan” for the future city, beginning with the making of a perfectly circular “Crown Road”. It was signed by over 450 people [see page 2]. On August 19th, in another petition, another 400 people expressed support for the Crown [see page 2].

On August 7th, a well-attended community gathering took place at the Kalabhumi amphitheatre. The meeting had been called in response to the Crown Road Walk, during which some vegetation had been damaged, a fence was broken and a fence and a pillar had been knocked down, all without previously consulting the stewards of the affected areas. The meeting was primarily an opportunity to share feelings regarding this event. But also an unexpected announcement was made: the stewards and caretakers of the communities affected by the Crown had jointly decided to no longer resist but move on, and, as a symbolic action to step forward, had started clearing pathways through their communities following the Crown corridor.

A second meeting at Kalabhumi followed on August 20th, this time called a General Meeting. At around the same time the TDC called for community participation in a two-hour workshop “Imagining Jewels of the Crown, a brainstorming towards a harmonious manifestation of the Crown Corridor” at Savitri Bhavan. As there were only limited seats, the TDC announced that the workshop would be conducted a few times to allow larger participation.

In this issue, we report thematically on the discussions and exchanges that came up in the various meetings – the post-Walk Talk; the community meeting of August 7th; the General Meeting of August 20th; as well as on the Auronet and on WhatsApp groups. We have focused here on presenting the voices of residents and key players across all these forums, rather than offering interpretations, in order to capture the wider sentiments in the community in all their diversity. However, we have not included the most acrimonious expressions of disagreement. Our effort to present a comprehensive view of the diversity of sentiments, however, has been somewhat challenged by the tendency of some groups to limit the extent of their public communications.

Events are continuing to unfold daily. We will keep our readers updated in subsequent issues. 

“Auroville: At last a place where nothing will have the right to impose itself as the exclusive truth.” The Mother, February 1968 I n recent times, Aurovilians have been under heavy pressure to accept without discussion, a rigid interpretation of the “Galaxy” concept as “Mother’s plan” for the future city, beginning with the making of a perfectly circular “Crown Road”. We firmly object to these pressures which, in our view, put Auroville’s future in jeopardy. There are some clear misconceptions at work, which we would like to respond to:

1. THE GALAXY

1. It Is true that the Mother gave her Blessings to the “Galaxy” concept for the city presented to her by a team of architects, but there is nothing to indicate that She ever considered this particular concept as sacrosanct or carved in stone for all time to come. She referred to it as “one of the projects” (Mother’s Agenda, 20 April 1968).

2. The Charter was not written “for the Galaxy” concept, as was recently asserted. The Charter (which does not even contain the word “city”) has nothing to do with any architectural plan and belongs to a much higher plane of consciousness.

3. In countless conversations with Aurovilians or with disciples, Mother hardly ever mentioned the Galaxy concept. But She did constantly stress the need for unity, harmony, and a change of consciousness that will replace the rigid rule of the mind. Again and again, She warned against dogmatic views, especially those asserted in her name; and it is clear that six decades later, we have not learned those lessons.

4. Throughout the years, the Galaxy concept has come to inspire the residents, and the town plan gradually evolves according to it. It is mainly the rigid, indeed dogmatic execution as proposed today, that has prompted this writing.

2. THE “CROWN ROAD”

1. On Saturday, July 31, a Walk was organized to study issues facing the road. People trampled roughshod over fences and undergrowth through Auroville communities to clear the paths. This ‘clearing by force’ was unnecessary.

2. We consider it incorrect to insist on perfect circularity for the Crown Road, as though Auroville’s future depended on an abstract line. The Crown is one element of the Master Plan (gazetted a few years ago but with the clear and written understanding that it was not to be taken as final) and must not be finalized, especially through coercive means, until the Master Plan itself is worked out by all stakeholders.

3. Nowhere in the aforementioned document is it stated that the Crown is a perfectly circular road.

4. The Crown Road and the Master Plan have never been approved by Mother, as some people have erroneously stated in recent meetings.

3. WHAT “CITY”?

1. We all agree that Auroville must grow into a city. But there are many conceptions for a city, especially in today’s world which is so radically different from what it was fifty years ago. Mother’s vision was always an evolving one, as any cursory reading of her numerous notes and messages on Auroville over the years will show.

2. Since 1968, Auroville has undeniably developed. Generations of Aurovilians have done outstanding work to secure the land, improve the environment, manage water resources, pioneer alternative energies, work with the villages – a development praised in India and beyond. Rigidly implementing the “crown” as currently proposed would, in effect, negate this very real progress, since it would involve razing buildings, destroying trees and passing over sensitive areas (i.e. groundwater recharge area) without considerate planning. It would not create a “smart city”, but a ravaged environment. And it is not keeping pace with today’s standard of urban planning.

3. Between climate change, rising sea levels, heat waves, wildfires, massive floods, rising social disparity and instability, the world is beginning to realize that its cities are unsustainable. Forward-looking urban thinkers are now proposing new concepts of sustainable urbanism. Why should we in Auroville lag behind, instead of pioneering new ways towards urban sustainability?

4. Moving towards a city will require fresh deep thought and not the blind application of an old plan. Several Aurovilians have already worked in this direction, trying to harmonize some of the initial ideas with present and future conditions; also non-Aurovilians such as Shri Balkrishna Doshi who has beautifully articulated the need for fluidity and adaptability. If such minds could come together with no dogmatic preconceptions, something new would certainly emerge. 5. In the meantime, we firmly reject any group’s attempt to forcibly impose its own limited vision on the entire community. This violates the very spirit of Auroville and will only end up creating deep divisions. 6. It is crucial that we find the way to work together and we commit to doing so, so that we can collectively build a city and a society worthy of the Auroville Charter.

Signed by over 450 Aurovilians

As the 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo comes nearer, Auroville is swiftly transitioning to a higher orbit of operation. It is asking us to shake off our collective inertia and move into action. The Master Plan has been approved by the Mother (1968) as the Galaxy Plan, by the community of Auroville (1999) after much deliberations and community processes and then notified by Government of India (2010). However, we have been hardly able to manifest what we committed to, due to a strong opposition by a handful of Aurovilians unwilling to let go of their attachments to the temporary structures built on the land they were given to take care of as a steward.

This has meanwhile led to randomness of building developments in Auroville & a situation where several undesired developments are taking place, including the purchase & commercial development of plots in the city area and the green belt by outsiders.

If Auroville has to protect itself from commercial developments, then it must begin to build its Master Plan. If we will not rapidly move to purchase lands and develop the township of Auroville, then the land mafia and commercial real estate will. They have already begun.

Now is the time to unitedly move towards the manifestation of Auroville, the city of dawn. The newly appointed Secretary of Auroville is happy to support us in this direction. But we must unite ourselves and be ready to work. The Mother called Galaxy the “Future”, and this is a decisive moment in the history of Auroville where it has to say “Yes” for the Future:

“Yes for creating homes for aspiring & capable young souls of the world willing to serve, “Yes for a city that is sustainable (In the Master Plan, the green belt area is three times the area of the city) “Yes for building a city that is at the cutting-edge of materials and spiritual research.

Let us offer our wholehearted support toward building the city that the world needs. Take a moment to sign this form to show your wholehearted support towards building the city of dawn. https://bit.ly/3k8jjGj

We are very happy to have received a wide support so far from more than 400 people, and hope that more people will step up to support the future of Auroville. Time for us to make a decisive move. Auroville can honour its mandate and decisions and collaborate to implement it.

Submitted by the Universal Township Support group, 19 Aug 2021, and signed by 400 Aurovilians