Issue Nº375

Architect David Nightingale has been developing a plan for Auroville’s Cultural Zone, which has led him to more broadly consider Auroville’s urban planning and mobility issues.

The steady increase in private car ownership in Auroville, as well as the hike in outside cars and autos circulating daily within the community, gives rise to the question: Is Auroville falling well behind ‘best practice’ examples of transport that are thriving in other parts of the world?

Many view the disruption caused by the lockdown in Auroville as an opportunity to radically transform our economy, governance, food provision systems etc. and a number of proposals to achieve this have already been made.

It is sometimes difficult to place the 1980s in Auroville. The 1970s was a period of pioneering and high drama – including, as it does, Mother’s passing and the conflict with the Society – while the 1990s witnessed a Cambrian explosion of projects.

As Auroville battles encroachment, nearby deforestation, water depletion and chemical farming, the green skills developed by the pioneers who brought the barren plateau back to life become ever more important.

In the Indian satirical film PK, a humanoid alien comes to study planet earth. Something of an idiot savant, he naively questions the customs and dogmas of the human race (located firmly in India, in this case).