A response from a resident after a peaceful gathering in 2023 at the Town Hall was falsely accused of “being violent.”
Written May 2023
Whose violence?
Aurovilians are being accused of being violent because they entered the Auroville Town Hall and the lobby of the Auroville Foundation on Monday 3rd February.
For their part, they state the following: firstly, it was their dharma to signal to the administration their very serious dereliction of duty regarding the non-filing of an appeal in the PKS case. And secondly, they think that this going in numbers and talking to the different working groups was a very mild response to the brutality and cruelty leashed upon them for the past 3 years.
To those who accuse them of violence, they would like to say that
You
– Have supported the violence unleashed by goondas in December 2021 at the Youth Center
– have repeatedly disregarded the decisions of the Residents’ Assembly as expressed in numerous RADs for the last 3 years
– have forcibly occupied your present position without any mandate from the Residents’ Assembly
– have collaborated with the Foundation Secretary’s decision about the expulsion of two long-term Aurovilians
– have supported the denial of visas for several longtime and respected Aurovilians under one pretext or the other
– have organized things in such a way that most old-timers no longer benefit from 5-year visas and have to beg endlessly for the extension of their visas
– have supported the filing of FIRs against several Aurovilians
– have collaborated with the arbitrary dismissal of many Aurovilians responsible for some units, activities and services, and in their place, named incompetent and dishonest people
– have cut the maintenances of a number of Aurovilians under one pretext or another
– have cut the maintenances of Aurovilian foresters and farmers, and denied gratuity to their workers in contradiction to the laws of India
– have ignored the countless requests of elderly persons, mostly foresters, to be included in the Silver Fund
– have ignored agreements with previous FAMCS on contribution waivers and have applied your own diktats retroactively, trying to extort money from people requesting a visa extension, without bothering about their distress
– have ignored participatory planning and have constructed badly conceived, badly constructed huge roads, without the least consultation with Aurovilians and without even respecting the so-called Master Plan
– are harassing all units of Auroville by constantly sending them new orders, new directives, subjecting them to constant administrative changes, summoning them from one day to the next and treating them like your employees
– are delaying or even blocking donations to many units or activities of Auroville under one pretext or another – the most outrageous pretext being that “you don’t exist”
– are forcing Auroville services to be profitable and in consequence to become tourist-oriented
– give yourself the right to judge if an activity is “in alignment” with the ideals of Auroville and deserves funding or not
– are harassing all Aurovilians with the brutal and threatening tone of your almost daily messages
– are harassing Aurovilians in charge of some activities for no reason, even asking them to produce the proof of their existence
– are turning a blind eye to dishonest people provided they side with you or with the Foundation office
– are letting Auroville be robbed of its sacred lands, making it lose crores of rupees
– are letting unknown people benefit from the new “development” by grabbing wood worth crores
– are supporting the destruction of the Auroville environment, Auroville services, Auroville economy, Auroville safety
– are remaining silent before the disappearance of beauty and the spreading of ugliness and dirtiness in each and every corner of Auroville
– are refusing to meet Aurovilians or to answer their mails, as if they were unworthy
– are threatening anyone who dares speak their mind
– have taken upon yourselves the responsibility for finances, for development, for economy, for entry, for culture, for communications, for visas, and even for the spiritual progress of each Aurovilian
– are acting in a blatantly illegal way, taking upon yourselves to invent ridiculous, dictatorial and completely illegal “criteria for residence in Auroville”
This list is not exhaustive, of course, but everyone with a minimum of sensitivity will describe this as continuous violence exercised over Aurovilians since the end of 2021
Not one of these actions is in accordance with the vision of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Flexibility, compassion, fraternity, collaboration, freedom of initiatives, spontaneity, organic growth, sincerity have all been thrown to the dustbin. Cruelty, nastiness, pettiness are ruling the day. We are now a community whose members have been brutalized and alienated for such a long time that their anguish is deep. Photos of magnificent trees that you have felled have circulated widely, but no photos of the distress and the pain in the hearts of Aurovilians can be taken.
Auroville is being transformed by you into a caricature devoid of any meaning or value.
You may note: the cup is full.
by Christine Devin