Issue Nº412 – News in brief

Contrary to our announcement in the previous issue, the 650-page study on Auroville’s organization made by Professor Raag Yadava and his team, has not yet been published. We will notify our readers as soon as we are informed when the study can be downloaded.

Heart Weaving was started in December last year in an effort to deepen our capacity for dialogue in Auroville and to be able to truly listen to each other across differing perspectives and opinions. The process was anchored by Raghu Ananthanarayanan and a cohort of nearly 30 Aurovilians and Newcomers had chosen to be a part of it. Over the last ten months they have been exploring the Samudra Manthan/The Great Churning and enquiring into how this might be playing out inside each of them and, as a result, in Auroville as well.

Heart Weaving is primarily a space to support and nurture practice. In the spirit of which, some of them have also made small attempts at enabling deep dialogue and building bridges and brought their learnings and challenges back to the group for everybody to learn from. They are now ready to expand the circle and bring new members into the process. Any long term resident of Auroville, aspiring for harmony and truly keen on serving The Mother’s Dream, is most welcome to be a part of the journey.

Since August 2023 Dreamcatching sessions have begun again after a gap of almost 15 years on different roof tops, every Monday from 6-8 am. It is one of the multi-pronged approaches that were proposed by the Dreamweaving Core Team to unite people around common processes and values. Each session is open to anyone (Aurovilians, Newcomers) and offers an aspirational and safe space to explore “the DNA of Auroville”, in a quiet, non-confrontational and meditative manner.

From the presentation of the Dreamweavers, a new initiative called the ‘Self Education Programme’ was launched on 12th September. 20 participants split into 5 groups are learning and sharing for 7 weeks about 5 major and often ignored topics of urban design; namely spatial justice, values and urban forms, art and culture, connectivity and access, and density and diversity.

The aim is to later present the findings to the community, and the learnings of the group are to be woven in with the other Dreamweaving initiatives. 

The FO L’avenir d’Auroville / ATDC announced that the preparation of the development of Auroville-City, planning and development of roads, sectors and facilities has implications for the borewells also. Auroville city has approximately 70 borewells, most of them serving a limited number of residents and services. The FO ATDC will in the coming year integrate 15 to 20 borewells into a common system, run by Auroville Water Service. How, when and in what priority will be published and communicated later. Sharing will decrease the usage per resident significantly, which is needed to preserve groundwater.

Now residents applying for a visa letter of recommendation (LOR) will not have their request sent to the Foundation Office until they receive a ‘no dues certificate’ from the AVFO ‘BCC’. This is a newly created document which confirms that they are paying their Auroville financial contribution. If it is found that the person has not paid their contribution in full, then the request for a LOR will not be sent until up to three years of ‘back payments’ are collected in full. 

As noted by the RA BCC, “It is important to distinguish between a contribution and a tax … contributions are waived because the individuals are working for free, or previously made large donations to Auroville (and are now aged), or are between jobs and without resources. The current approach seems to be to administer the individual contributions as a tax, without understanding or honouring this human element.”  It was also observed that the new policy appears to target only non-Indian Aurovilians who rely on a visa to stay in Auroville.

On 19th June Satprem Maini was notified by the FRRO Chennai that he had to leave the country on or before 1st July, although he holds a valid visa until December 2025, since the Secretary had apparently withdrawn his recommendation to work and live in Auroville. Satprem immediately went to Delhi to meet various high officials who said they would examine the case. 

However, on 29th September the Under Secretary In Charge, Auroville Foundation, issued the following: ”This is to inform that FRRO has issued ‘Exit Permit” to Mr. Serge Andre Marie Maini who was residing at Auroshilpam, Auroville. Hence, his name be removed from ROR and access to Auronet, Auroville emails etc to be revoked with immediate effect. This is issued with the approval of the Competent Authority.”

The RA WC responded that “admission and termination of residents in the Register of Residents (and from the Master List) is the exclusive prerogative of the Residents’ Assembly as per the Auroville Foundation Act, 1988 (Section 19(2)(a) ) and the Auroville Admission and Termination Regulations, 2020. Therefore, the Secretary and the individuals calling themselves the ‘Working Committee’, which were not selected by the RA, cannot make this decision, according to the law and to our internal guidelines and mandates. The RA has not come to any decision to remove any Aurovilian, including Satprem and Maёl, from the RoR, nor has the RA delegated this power to any other body or individual.”

Subsequently, the RA WC launched a Residents Assembly Decision process on the topic of unauthorized removal of residents from the Register of Residents (RoR). 741 people voted, of which 725 voted in favour of a resolution declaring the announcements of removal as invalid and against the approved regulations and principles. 

On 23rd October, Satprem received the following from the authorities. “You were directed to take an exit from India on or before 01.07.2023 due to cancellation of your X-2 visa. It is learnt that you are still in India. You are here by directed again to take an early exit and comply with the instructions as soon as possible. Non-compliance of the above instructions, shall lead to initiation of suitable action.” Satprem left at the end of October, after a moving farewell from residents given at the Earth Institute.

Satprem set up and is deeply involved with the Auroville Earth Institute (AVEI), which has become one of the world’s foremost centres for excellence in earthen architecture, and a leader in the research, development, promotion and transfer of earth-based building technologies. AVEI has worked in 39 countries to promote and disseminate knowledge in earth architecture, and has garnered 15 awards for its work (4 international awards and 11 national awards).

Recently their bank account at the State Bank of India was frozen at the request of a member of the FO FAMC. This means, says AVEI, that they cannot any longer pay their workers and very soon will be unable to function.

On 18th October, K.Swarnambika, Deputy Secretary / DIR, issued a final call to those Aurovilians who had not updated their entry in the ROR, warning them that if they did not come to the office within ten days to do so, “any application after that shall not be entertained”. A list published by the FO WC on 19th October showed that 125 people had still not updated their details.

In July 2023, an email was received by Ayarpadi farm demanding that they hand over “the land parcel that you are farming in situated next to Windarra, as well as the service farm” so that the land could be reallocated to “Aurovillians [sic] who have undergone 6 months of training at Unity Farm”. The Farm Group responded with a letter which stated that they were taken aback by the request, going on to say: “We wonder why you want to take a part of a good functioning farm to experiment with. Ayarpadi has been consistently producing field crops on this part of their farm. The farm produces many grains that are in short supply in Auroville such as paddy, peanuts, ragi and sesame, as well as being the main supplier of boiled rice to Solar Kitchen.”

Ayarpadi Farm has now received an email from the AVFO ‘Farm Service’, which stated that they would no longer be considering Ayarpadi Farm land for reallocation.

The Auroville Farm Group reports that when farmers’ maintenances were cut with no notice many farms and farmers found themselves in considerable difficulty. Individual farmers found their lifestyles were affected and several were unable to go on paying back loans both personal and on the farm. Several farmers are now surviving on savings and/or making money for living expenses by doing non farming activities. Some are thinking about growing more cash crops to bring in more money or growing more profitable crops rather than just increasing production, and some have had to delay planned investment indefinitely until they are able to restructure the farm finances.

 Initial financial support was found for those farms and farmers in acute difficulty but a more long term solution for farm support is being sought. There have been wide ranging discussions about how to do this. 

The RA TDC is continuing to document and report on instances of tree cutting across Auroville. Their report of 7th September 2023 shows that at least 378 trees have been cut on the proposed Crown and Outer Ring Road trajectories since the NGT judgment of April 2022. 

On 3rd September 2023, banyans and palmyras that were beside the Crown road opposite Santé were cut. It is pointed out that “a narrowing or diversion of the road by a few centimetres would have allowed the trees to remain”.

AVI USA has created a special scholarship fund in collaboration with Auroville’s Botanical Gardens and with sponsorship from HiDesign. The scholarship is created in the memory of David Nagel, originally from Brooklyn, who joined Auroville in 1978. David dedicated his life to Auroville’s forests and planted many thousands of trees.  The Nagel family wants to support Auroville youth in their pursuit of their work in a chosen field of forestry or ecology at Auroville’s Botanical Gardens.

In the middle of October a 3-day Botanical Gardens of India Networking Workshop was held at the Auroville Botanical Gardens. This event was supported by Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) with most of their partnered botanical gardens attending the workshop, and over 30 participants from 19 organisations across India attended. Over the 3 days, they shared the conservation work being done in each region and explored their expertise, skill sets and areas where they could help each other grow. The aspiration is that this network will continue to grow and become a web of passionate partners from all over India. 

The Auroville Vehicles Service, on the request of many Aurovilians, asks all electric cycle users to pedal while using the cycle paths instead of using the motor. This would reduce their speed and make it safer for others who use the cycle paths. The Vehicle Service also suggests, in the interests of sustainable mobility,  that for distances of 0 - 1 km, people should try to walk:  01 - 10 kms, try to pedal a cycle: 10 kms and above, try to use public transport. 

An Auroville Community Updates Whatsapp channel has been launched which is open to all members of the Auroville community (including residents, Newcomers and volunteers). It will contain the latest issues of the News & Notes - Community Edition, as well as Mass Bulletins,  Announcements from RA Working Groups and announcements pertaining to community meetings, etc.

Residents are invited to join a new ChatGPT group. As the invitation put it, “Perhaps you’re a student of Mother and Sri Aurobindo intrigued by the possibility that AI is an essential milestone on the road to the supramental being. Or possibly you believe the opposite, that the entire trans-human agenda is an Asuric roadblock seductively placed by the Lord of Nations. If so, (you are invited) to join our Generative AI User Group! We’ll meet regularly (in the real world) to discuss the latest trends and developments in generative AI, share ideas, and collaborate on projects.”

A new book, “Prefiguring Utopia: The Auroville Experiment”, by Aurovilian Suryamayi Aswini Clarence-Smith and published by Bristol University Press has just been released.  A more affordable paperback version will come out in one year. The book can be ordered at amazon.in and a copy will be made available in the Auroville Library.

On 18th of August, a small group who had been present at the planting of a Peace Tree in Campinas, Brazil on 25th June 2004, gathered at the Botanical Gardens to plant another Peace Tree in Auroville. 

The Peace Trees programme was the brainchild of Danaan Parry of the Earthstewards Network, who wanted to promote friendly relations between peoples in conflict through the planting of trees together. The first Peace Trees programme took place in Auroville in 1988 and involved teenagers from the U.S., Russia and India. Since then Peace Trees projects have happened in many other parts of the world.

An interesting headline appeared on Auronet recently: “Neem Tree Eatery has joined Dropsy”. Dropsy is the old fashioned term for oedema, which is a build-up of fluid in the body. Possible causes include venous insufficiency, heart failure, kidney problems, low protein levels, liver problems, deep vein thrombosis, infections, angioedema, certain medications, and lymphedema.  Not, one would have thought, the best way to advertise an Auroville eatery. However, it turns out that ‘Dropsy’ was a misspelling of ‘Dropzy”, an Auroville-developed app that allows food to be delivered to one’s doorstep by Integrated Transport (ITS) personnel.