Working groups

Lakshay Dharan shifted to Auroville in 2015 and became an Auroville resident in Feb 2018. Since then, he has been active in art, communication, strategy, and organisational work.

Maël Vidal was born and grew up in Auroville before going to France to pursue higher studies, where he received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social anthropology.

Chali reflects on the fractures within Auroville and on the possibilities of restoration.

Four years into this crisis, I find myself searching for clarity on how we move forward. Yesterday, I came across a series of writings by Shannon Willis on Soft Rebellion that articulated what many of us have been intuitively practicing all along.

“Wishing to move forward in collaboration towards the building of the city and the right administering of Auroville,” the AVFO on 9 May issued a call for self-nomination in key areas of the Auroville administration, eg a group, service, unit or trust.

On 18 April, the RA-WCom responded to the 11 April 2025 circular sent out by the Auroville Foundation Office. The RA-WCom noted that, once again, the Foundation Office and the groups and individuals who are recognised by them are attempting to erode the sense of community and spirit of unity by sowing confusion and fear.

The GB-WCom invited Aurovilians and Newcomers to an Information Sharing and Joint Interaction meeting with the Governing Board-constituted Auroville Town Development Council, Funds and Assets Management Committee, Admissions and Terminations Scrutinizing Committee, Working Committee, and Auroville Foundation Legal.

On 10 April the Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS) announced the outcome of an Emergency RA Decision-Making (ERAD) Process initiated by the Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) to formally acknowledge Residents' Assembly entities as section 19 committees under the Auroville Foundation Act 1988.

Claude and Abha have been living in Auroville since 1974 and 1978 respectively. For the last 45 years, Abha has been running the handicraft unit Shradhanjali while Claude has become a scholar who has authored several books and articles on Tibet, China, India and on Indo-French relations.

The RA-WCom has challenged the authority of the GB-FAMC which it described as “a group of individuals attempting to impose control over the rest of the community when it has not been selected by the Residents’ Assembly and does not respond to calls of collaboration or transparency.”

Prashant Hedao was the Regional Planning Coordinator of L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s Town Planning Department, from 2007-2010. In those years he worked closely together with then Governing Board member Dr BV Doshi on the Auroville Master Plan.

After a year and a half of publishing, the editors of the RA edition of the News and Notes have decided to limit the edition to content that strengthens community-building in Auroville, more specifically on working group announcements and reports, residents’ voices and personal sharings, some cultural events, and information from essential services.

In light of an interview published in Auroville Today’s October issue that presented a perspective on Auroville’s current governance situation, we feel it necessary to offer a different view that more accurately reflects the experiences and concerns of many in our community.

The Auroville Foundation Act 1988 contains a special section on the Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly. It states that:

Sathiya, a second-generation Aurovilian, speaks about her upbringing and her unwavering commitment to Auroville's ethos despite external pressures.

On 12th August last year, the case regarding the legitimacy of the Residents Assembly working groups was judged in favour of the RA. Soon after, on 26th August, the AVFO appealed the case, and obtained a temporary stay on the judgement, pending the outcome of the appeal.

A 650-page study on Auroville’s organization, made by Professor Raag Yadava and his team, has been published. It is available on the Auroville website.

The last two months have continued to witness dramatic and, for some residents, distressing events in the community. Here is a brief update, drawn from reports in the public domain.

The new selection process started in May with a call for nominations/self-nominations for candidates for the following Working Groups: Auroville Council, Auroville Town Development Council, Entry Board, Funds and Assets Management Committee and Working Committee.

Auroville’s Residents’ Assembly Service is tasked with organizing decisions of the Residents’ Assembly of the Auroville Foundation. Lately their job has become very challenging.

Over the years, the community has selected members to serve in its major working groups. In the early years, this was comparatively simple, as there were few residents and only one or two such groups, and everybody knew each other well.

On June 12th, Auroville bade farewell to Mohan Verghese Chunkath who had been serving as Secretary of the Auroville Foundation since June 2016.

I have been in Auroville for 20 years since the age of 10. I worked as a teacher in Future School, a writer for the Auroville Today and Auroville Village Action Group, and served a term in the Working Committee.

For six days in early January there was a collaborative planning workshop or charrette involving over 60 Aurovilians and visiting experts. The stated aim of Auroville - A Way Forward was to “bring the purpose of Auroville into our life, built environment and organization’.

On May 12th, the Selection Committee for the new Land Board selected five new members to join the two continuing members. Their term of office started on May 21st.

Koodam, Auroville’s conflict resolution referral platform, recently published the “Koodam Impact Analysis Research Report,” presenting an overview of Koodam’s growth and development since 2013 and assessing the impact of its work.

The work of the Auroville’s Residents’ Assembly Service (RAS)

When the members of the Land Board took office in January 2014 they met with a dire scenario. Funds to purchase lands were in short supply, the sale of outlying lands was blocked, land encroachment was rampant, land grabs and falsifications of land documents by outsiders were discovered, and legal assistance was insufficiently available.

There are two possibilities. The first is a step-by-step procedure based on the need of the day. This more or less corresponds to how we tackle the problem at present, problems are solved as they come up.

The Auroville Council announced that attempts to create a ‘Code of conduct and eligibility criteria’ for members of working groups has failed due to limited community participation and widely diverging opinions on the topic.

The Governing Board, in its meeting of August 2014, decided on the merger of all land related working groups, such as the Land and Estate Management group, the Land Resource Management Group, the Land Consolidation Committee and the Land Development Group, into one overarching Land Board of seven persons.

The term of office of Shri N. Bala Baskar, IAS (retd.) the Secretary to the Auroville Foundation, will end on August 16th. He had been Secretary from 1996 till 2001, and rejoined the Auroville Foundation on March 8th, 2012.

The Chairman of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation, Dr. Karan Singh, in two open letters to the Aurovilians, communicated the Board's concern about the slow progress of land purchase.