LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Historical Presentation 2007
Monday, 25 June: Auroville: Carlos Castillo
Auroville
What is it?
"Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity" – The Mother
Where is it?
http://www.auroville.org/comingtoav/images/mapindia.gif
Auroville is located in south India, 150 kms south of Chennai (Madras) and about 10 kms north of Pondicherry town.
Founders
There are two people credited with the idea of Auroville…known as the founding father and mother. This plan for an ideal township is originally credited to "the Mother"(Mirra Alfassa) as early as the 1930s...
The Mother, or Mirra Alfassa - Studied occultism and was an experienced medium. She worked with groups of spiritual seekers. When she met Sri Aurobindo she immediately recognized him as a mentor for herself and became his "Shakti" – which means "wife of a deity, divine mother".
Sri Aurobindo, or Aravind Ghose - Born in Calcutta, but given Western education ( went to secondary school in London, then later to Cambridge Univ.) He returned to India in 1896 where he became a nationalist leader concentrating on India's liberation. He was arrested on treason charges, and imprisoned for a year...Here is where his fundamental spiritual experiences occurred that would change his life.
After Aurobindo was acquitted and released from prison, this spiritual awareness led him to take refuge from continuing pursuit by the British authorities in Pondicherry, then part of French India. Supported by his spiritual collaborator, the Mother, and using his new-found spiritual capacities, he continued to work tirelessly for the upliftment of India and the world. When India gained its Independence on 15.8.1947, he responded to the request for a message to his countrymen by speaking of five dreams that he had worked for, and which he now saw on the way to fulfillment.
The Five Dreams
- A revolutionary movement which would create a free and united India
- The resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to her great role in the progress of human civilization.
- A world-union forming the outer basis of a fairer, brighter and nobler life for all mankind.
- The spiritual gift of India to the world.
- A step in evolution which would raise man to a higher and larger consciousness and begin the solution of the problems which have perplexed and vexed him since he first began to think and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society.
Auroville's History
The Five Dreams were a catalyst for what would later become Auroville. After Sri Aurobindo died in 1950, the Mother created the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education to provide a new kind of education for Indian youth.
Finally, in 1968, she founded the international township project of Auroville. This project was a way to implement Aurobindo's new forms of individual and collective life, providing for a brighter future for the whole earth.
"Humanity is not the last rung of the terrestrial creation. Evolution
continues and man will be surpassed. It is for each individual to know
whether he wants to participate in the advent of this new species. For
those who are satisfied with the world as it is, Auroville obviously has
no reason to exist."
-The Mother, 1966
Auroville - 1968 - Inauguration ceremony. Comprised of individuals from 35 countries, ages from infancy to 80 (Avg age 30), from all social classes, backgrounds and cultures. The population has consistently grown and is currently around 1700 (1/3 are Indian).
Auroville Charter
- 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.
- Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
- Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
- Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.
Housing and Communities
The Auroville site, previously eroded and barren, is a flat plateau 150 feet above sea level.
- There are about 80 different settlements
- 2,600 acres within a 20 square-mile circle
- 1700+ people from 30 different countries.
- Over 2 million trees planted in last 30 years.
- Houses made of mud and thatch
- There are some commercial and manufacturing sites
Family Unit / Communal living / Family Life
I noticed that there is a “live and let live” type approach to the individual. There is not much information other than what is displayed below. Also, although women are treated equally, the collective does say that women should dress more modestly as not “to send the wrong signals” to the men.
- There is marriage, everyone allowed to follow own inclinations
- Partners allowed to part that have “psychologically outgrown” partner
- Cooking done by gas containers, sometimes solar cookers
- Solar Kitchen uses huge solar dish to gather heat to cook(steam) 1000 meals a day
- Most homes hire someone (village) to do their laundry
- No ownership rights to property
- Salaries - Aurovillians are not permitted to earn a salary by Indian Govt regulations. Instead most receive a "maintenance" from the unit or service they work for, sufficient to meet their most basic needs. Many Aurovillians take no remuneration at all from the community, maintaining themselves entirely out of their own funds as a contribution towards the township, though they still contribute monthly to the Central Fund.
Economy
- Collective - the units of which provide mainly goods and services for the maintenance and development of the township either on the basis of a budget from the Central Fund or as non-profit cost covering activities or a combination of both.
- Commercial - larger units are generally orientated towards export sales and make substantial contributions of unspecified funds to the Central Fund. The smaller units are often more concerned with producing beautiful things for the local market and their contributions tend to be more specified towards the development and maintenance of their immediate surroundings with a smaller proportion being contributed to the Central Fund.
- An ‘in-kind’ economy - consisting of an enormous amount of work and money contributed by Aurovillians, in addition to their specific activities or formal financial contributions, resulting in the development and maintenance of the communities where they live in the form of houses and infrastructure as well as household benefits.
Education
Schools and academic studies began in 1970. From those simple beginnings, Auroville now provides schooling from kindergarten through middle and high school. The curriculum includes arts, sciences, mathematics, languages, and humanities as well as physical education and sports.
Recreation activities
- Table Tennis
- Tennis
- Basketball
- Badminton
- Football
- Chess tournaments
- Community Pool
- Go (ancient Chinese game, more difficult than chess)
- Pony Farm
- Gyroriders
A description of a typical social scene according to website:
“A disused outdoor cinema projection booth has been converted into a small snack bar to serve cold drinks and savoury dip on fresh bread, free of charge, from 5pm on. In between games, sweaty, dust-covered basketball players will pile in to drink two or three glasses of chilled purple hibiscus syrup and water, while parents with young children relax on granite benches, gossiping. Larger children normally occupy a large sandpit filled with wooden horses on springs, climbing structures and a swing-set.
As night falls, only romantic hopefuls remain silhouetted on granite seats, chatting with intimate enthusiasm in blissful anonymity, far from daylight gossip.”
Guards, not Police or Army
- No policemen, each individual community responsible for own safety
- But there are night guards that help on roadways at night
- They help people that have run out of petrol, or have been in accidents
- They do not respond to noisy neighbor complaints
Governmental duties / services
Auroville Council serves as a focal body for administrative and executive issues; a general assembly represents the community at large, meeting as needed to discuss and confirm decisions that affect the collective; and decentralized work groups address issues such as education, farming, and business.
There are also services available like:
Counseling service – Available for those in need of therapy
Connections – Human resources center, helps find jobs for Aurovilians.
Freestore – Just as name suggests, everything is free (mostly clothing and music)
Auroville - Production Units
Auroville is striving to become a self-sufficient community. At present there are over 50 income-earning production units in Auroville, including handicrafts, construction and architecture, printing and graphic design, electronics, biogas-converter and windmill manufacturing, fish farming, and cheese-making.
Aurelec, the largest production unit in Auroville manufactures PC-compatible computers. Aurelec has received a National Productivity Award and is one of the most successful small companies in its field in India.
http://www.auroville.org/faq_nutshell.htm
Course Objectives:
3a.To investigate historical, nonfiction attempts by “communes,” “intentional communities,” or even nations to put utopian ideals into practice. Admittedly, all utopian communities eventually fail (or at least submerge), but how to get beyond “They don’t work” as a discussion-stopper? (For instance, even if all utopias fail, that doesn’t stop people from imagining or attempting utopias.)
3b.Are utopian impulses limited to socialism and communism, or may freemarket capitalism also express itself in utopian terms and visions? Is utopia “progressive / liberal” or “reactionary / conservative?” What relations between “self and other” are modeled?
3d. In postmodern history, is the utopian impulse extinct? Can utopian ideals survive the postmodern universal of irony?
Map of the center of Auroville
A - Matrimandir
B - Banyan tree and 'Garden of Unity
C - Urn - Amphitheatre
D - Meditation rooms
E - Small petals
F - Ring of the twelve Inner Gardens
G - Rose Garden
H - Water channel around oval path
I - Park
