Imagine a place where people from all walks of life live together in perfect harmony, where they push scientific and social boundaries and they all contribute to build a perfect society.

Can a place like this really exist?
Well if you look to Viluppuram a village near Pondicherry in Southern India, you will find a community that is trying to do just this, it is called Auroville.

I had reservations about coming to Auroville, from the literature that I had read, it felt as if I would be entering a cult, even though religion is not recognised here. However I decided to go as they run a large number of social projects and have good connections with local communities.

So what did I learn from coming to Auroville?
Before I can answer this I think that it is important to give you some background into Auroville, how and why it started and how it operates today.

Auroville was offically started in 1968, it was the vision of french born Mirra Alfassa, known as ‘The Mother’. Mirra came to India in 1920 to be part of Sri Aurobindo’s retreat in Pondicherry. Mirra explored Integral Yoga, and developed a higher level of conscious thinking. Together Mirra and Sri Aurobindo developed the concept of Auroville and managed to gain the backing and financial assistance from the Indian Government and UNESCO to put their vision into practice.

What was the vision for this town?
The town would be built in a series of circles and house six different areas, see fig 1 below. It would be located just outside of Pondicherry on unused arid land. The town would house 50,000 residents all of whom would buy into the Aurovillian Charter, which is:

1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.

2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.

3. Auroville wants to be the bridge bewteen the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.

4. Auroville will be a site of material and spirtual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human unity.

At the centre of the town (the peace area) would be Matrimandir, a place for silence and meditation and be the soul of the city. It would house a large pure glass crystal in the inner chamber which would also be made of marble. Matrimandir is now one of the main reasons that the most tourists come to Auroville.

How does it operate today?
Today Auroville has about 2006 residents representing 44 nationalities, the majority being Indian, French and German. Auroville is financed through private donations, by Indian and international governments, through residents and tourists mandatory contributions and through their commercial activities. They have their own schools (which teach the Aurovillian cirriculum), a health care centre, supermarkets and shops, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, roads connecting the communes, libraries, a post office, a town hall, a beach, a lush green belt, guest houses, financial services and spiritual treatment centres. Auroville does not allow money to be circulated within the town and operates a system where people (guests and residents) have accounts.

All those that come to settle in Auroville must take up work to advance the community, they should renounce their previous lives and must have some financial backing in order to live here. The houses that they build do not belong to them but to the community as a whole.

Over the past 10 years, Auroville has received about £5.7 million for development projects and programmes in various fields of Auroville’s activities (about 16% came from the Indian Government, 38% from other sources within India, and 46% from abroad).

Currently Auroville has over 120 large and small commercial units which operate under fifteen trusts. These commercial units cover,

• Natural handicrafts
• Organic food processing
• Construction engineering, architecture and solar electronics
• Ecological and cost friendly consultancy on building and land use
• Computer hardware and software
• Retailing of Auroville products, such as clothing, cards, handmade paper and paper products, incense and candles etc.

These units are seen as the root to Aurovilles sustainability to help fund the development of the towns infrastructure and services. A added incentive to develop their activity is that Aurovillains do not pay tax on their commercial activities.

Figure 1: Auroville Town Structure

My thoughts on Auroville
I had very mixed views of Auroville. The vision of the town and the way that it is being developed (the infrastructure and the community ethos) is a typical view of how an individual in the 1970’s saw the future. As I wondered around the complex I felt as though I was in a 1970’s sci-fiction film. For those that have seen the 1984 version of Frank Herbert’s Dune directed by David Lynch, I kept expecting to see Aurovillians walking around with bright blues eyes, rebels against modern living, preserving the ways (spice) of the 1970’s.

Yes Aurovillians have done some great work particularly in advancing architectural planning, environmental technologies and educational thinking. Many students flock to Auroville to carry out research and learn from them, but there is still a lot that unnerves me about the way Auroville operates and I am not sure that they will ever achieve their vision.

The biggest threat to the contiued growth of the town comes from their sturggle for funding and thier inability to purchase the surrounding land needed to expand their community. The ever expanding nearby town of Pondicherry is pushing up land prices in and around Auroville. Since Auroville relys heavily on grants and donations they always seem to be one step behind, struggling to match the affluent businessmen buying up the land. Without land it will be impossible for them to reach the 50,000 settlers that they are striving for.

Alongside this there seems to be a disaparity between many Aurovillians in terms of opportunities and wealth. The Mother states that individuals will not be limited by their financial and social positions yet many Aurovillians feel trapped in the society unable to move out. This is partly due to the little captial that they have, as previously mentioned they do not own their houses and much of the pay that they get given can only be spent in Auroville, making it almost impossible for people to save money. It is easier for some international Aurovillains who have families that can support them and who often have houses in their native countries to fall back on.

Though Auroville claims that it is not religious for me following this spiritual way of living, strictly abiding by one persons vision (The Mothers) is a form of religion, this collective belief is no different from christanity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddahism etc.

Many of the projects run by Auroville are not practising what they preach. They carry out a lot of community work in the local villages particulary around education, health, womens empowerment, the enivonment etc. Since many of the projects are grant funded and short term, they seem to be forever chasing funding (this is not uncommon in the UK as well) and often come up with projects just to get funds. The problem with this is that they don’t always involve the communities when devising these projects and many of the communities in and around Auroville are being done “to” not done “with”.

As well as this many Aurovillian projects lack the appropriate management skills to run them and manage staff and there is a lot of waste and inefficiency (again not uncommon in the Uk). If they are running a project about women’s empowerment in a local village you will often find that women employed in the project are not empowered and many do not have the same opportunities as their male counterparts.

The way that Aurovillains live their lives alongside the local commnunities and the tourists that they attract is often questionable. I think that there is a love hate relationship between these groups. Though Auroville has increased employment for the local communities and investment in the local economies many local villagers do not like having Aurovillains around. Not least because many Aurovillians do not keep to local customs particulary clothing, they still don’t pay the locals good salaries, it is difficult for locals to access their services etc. Tourists are not made to feel hugely welcome yet they generate much needed income for Auroville.

In short there is always more than one side of every story and many people vehemently believe in the good work that Auroville are doing. I did experience this with a re-forestation project who are working across the Tamil Nadu state reintroducing native trees and plants, restoring mangroves and bringing back Indian Bioculture, including the beautiful greenbelt around Auroville.

I can not help thinking though that this is just another ex-pat community, who when it gets hot head home for the cooler climates living 6months in Auroville and 6months somewhere else. The challenge that Auroville faces is how they maintain their core values and vision as they aim to expand and how they work with modern society and not against it. I heard someone describe Auroville as a Hippie Zoo this sums it up for me, a place that looks out to the world, and world who stares with interest at this little part of the 1970’s.