Bulldozers knocking down trees and threatening built-up structures at 1 am: such action can only come from a source that has no legitimacy to work during the day. Yet in early December 2021, a community in India with members from 60 countries, that has lived peacefully for over 50 years in a unique (and unfinished) experiment of multi-cultural co-existence, had to suffer precisely such a traumatic incident. But what this community, Auroville, is going through has implications that go well beyond the destruction of a few trees and structures, and well beyond even India. There are serious ramifications linked to global trends in cultural and economic authoritarianism.

Bulldozers move in

The ecological and social damage of the actions, taken in early December and proposed in the near future, are in themselves serious enough to warrant attention. Between 4th and 9th December, the Auroville Town Development Council (ATDC) backed by Auroville Foundation’s Governing Board, moved in JCBs to clear a path through a dense forest and demolish key structures of the community’s Youth Centre. Peaceful resistance by residents who urged the convening of a full Residents’ Assembly to discuss the actions was ignored; in one incident several dozen outsiders from a distant village were brought in to intimidate protesting residents. A gag order was put on Outreach Media, the community’s longstanding and respected service to reach out to the external world, with the Foundation saying only its appointed spokespersons were authorised to speak. The forest clearance work stopped only when the National Green Tribunal ordered a stay in response to a petition filed by residents.

Over 900 trees had meanwhile been felled, and some key structures of the Youth Centre demolished. An estimated 150,000 more trees and shrubs are likely to be felled for a proposed Crown Way Road that will encircle the inner core of Auroville. According to some residents and representatives of the Auroville Foundation’s Governing Board, whose members are appointed by the Central Government, this road is part of the original vision of the Mother (Mirra Alfassa, 1878–1973), who founded Auroville. The Mother was a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, one of India's most well-known philosophers, proponent of integral yoga, and a spiritual visionary; Auroville was her way of putting Aurobindo's vision into practice. Most residents however dispute this ‘fact’, pointing out that the original vision, and a Master Plan made in 1999-2001, has no detailed Development Plan that dictates the precise dimensions and alignment of the Crown Way. As residents Lakshmi Venugopal and Tejaswini Mistri-Kapoor note, the Master Plan stresses an approach that is “neither traditional, nor static and rigid”. On a recent visit to Auroville, I found that residents have in fact provided alternative routes that only require minor adjustments to the official proposals, and would help save most of the trees. They pointed out to me that the Governing Board and ATDC are interpreting the Mother’s vision very rigidly, insisting on a ‘perfect circle’ with an alignment that will mean not only unnecessary levels of tree-felling but also destruction of wetlands and water courses that are crucial for the water security of Auroville and of villages downstream. At Darkali, the stewards who have helped regenerate barren land into a lush forest, showed me precious waterbodies that the ATDC alignment will destroy, whereas the alignment suggested by residents, just a few metres to the side, will help avoid this. Equally alarming is a plan to make 12 radial roads connecting the Crown Way, something not envisaged in the Master Plan, and likely to destroy even more forests and waterways.