Crown controversy

Manoj Pavithran is an integral yoga practitioner, educator and filmmaker. He was drawn to Sri Aurobindo in 1989 and eventually joined Auroville in 1995.

The current situation in your community is affecting not only its residents but also people who may be interested in joining this special community.

35 years ago, much of the land intended for Auroville’s future Mahasaraswati Park, located near to the Town Hall, still belonged to neighbouring Kottakarai village.

This issue is almost entirely devoted to the tumultuous events of the last weeks which saw bulldozers removing trees planted by Auroville foresters and Auroville habitations in the Youth Centre, to clear a path for the Right of Way of the Crown, which is intended to connect the four zones of the city.

As a therapist I know that one of the first steps to healing is to acknowledge trauma, whether individual or collective. This is an unusual article in that I invite the reader to hold and witness with compassion our inner and outer diversity as a community.

While the vast majority of Aurovilians see a need for the Crown, differences exist concerning how it should be manifested. Here, in a summarized form, we present some of the major expressed differences in perspective, some of which have not been adequately fact-checked.

The clearing of the Crown, Auroville’s main urban path, once again met with resistance after 25 years of discussion and waiting, on December 4.

Since the shock of the destruction of the buildings and forest clearance, the Youth Center (YC) has been receiving support and appreciation from the community.

Frederick, who came to India in 1966 and has been living in Auroville ever since its inception in 1968, gives his view of the recent happenings.

When things get hot, it’s easy to get caught up in the frame of the moment and lose of sense of the larger picture.

Since our last issue, which focused upon the controversy over the manifestation of the Crown, there have been significant developments and activities regarding this topic.

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.

One of the disagreements concerns The Mother’s approval of the Master Plan. Some people, including the Secretary, believe that Mother’s vision for Auroville is laid down in the Master Plan – one person even stated that she had approved it.

Twenty six years ago, the youth were looking for a new home as Ami, which had been a youth community for many years, was no longer a welcoming environment.

Bliss forest is a city park that is densely planted to be a forest. Aurovilians from South Korea may be familiar with a similar concept in the city of Seoul.

A year ago, in February 2020, there was an attempt to survey a route through the Youth Centre and Bliss forest for the laying of a High Tension cable.