Diversity

Societies are very complex organisms. Authorities in totalitarian societies attempt to diminish the complexity – which they see as a threat to asserting their will – by rigidly controlling the population through indoctrination and various instruments of coercion.

Auma is a second-generation Aurovilian, born to Indian and French pioneers, Marie Babu and André Tardeil. While she raises her third generation child, she shares insights with us about what makes Auroville unique to her.

At present, many people are trying to make sense of what is happening in Auroville. The writings of Sri Aurobindo and Mother are an obvious aid to understanding, but Spiral Dynamics may also provide a useful lens through which to view the current situation and possible next steps.

One of humanity’s oldest fears – perhaps, the oldest fear of all – is fear of the unknown: of how the world was created, why the sun disappeared every night, why winter followed summer etc.

When Aurelec first started back in the early 1980s, it had no catering facility, only a small kerosene stove on which the cleaning lady brewed tea and coffee for the pioneer staff working there.

In 2018, Auroville’s population crossed 3,000, growing by 8.2% over last year. But what might be more interesting from the perspective of human unity is the diversity of its residents – Aurovilians and Newcomers now come from 58 countries.

Recently, discrimination has been a hot topic in Auroville. It was brought to the forefront by two Tamil members of the Working Committee who felt they had been ‘discriminated’ against by not being allowed to meet the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on his recent visit.

The population table published in the previous edition of Auroville Today contained a serious mistake. At the end of the population table on page 7, column 1 was mistakenly copied into column 3.

One of the greatest challenges of our times is how to view and to handle diversity, religious, cultural, gender, or whatever. Are our differences a potential source of conflict or of strength?

In spite of threats of a monsoon downpour, five per cent of Auroville made its way along the unfamiliar paths and tracks to Sharnga, skidding and sticking in the mud, here and there taking wrong turns, but eventually arriving at the ‘Palacio’.

These are extracts from an interview with the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, by François Gautier on the 24th of February, 1988.