Have you ever dreamed of living in a place that is outside of religion and politics? A place that’s full of free-thinking people who just want to live in peace and enjoy their life to the fullest? A place where you don’t have to worry about your career, country or origin, race. That place exists and it’s called Auroville.
Auroville was built as an experiment. The idea was to create a town that anyone can move to, create an international society that has no interest in politics or religion. Sound a bit unrealistic and hippy dippy, right? Well that town exists. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, and Roger Anger was the architect of Auroville.
According to the founder, Mirra Alfassa, also known as “the Mother” ‘Auroville is meant 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 name of this town has a French origin and means City of Dawn. It’s located in South India and right now has a population of almost 2,5k people. The inhabitants of Auroville range in age, ethnicities and countries of origin. At the moment about a third of the population is from India, and the rest is from all over the world including America, European countries and Asia.
The township of Auroville is divided into 4 zones. Industrial, residential, international and cultural. The industrial zone hosts Auroville’s green industries and aims to make the city as self-sufficient as possible. The residential zone is a mix of collective and individual living spaces. The international zone is meant to host cultural and national pavilions. It’s meant to be a great example of human unity. And finally the cultural zone is meant to have all sorts of educational, artistic and sport facilities. All of Auroville is meant to be surrounded by a Green Belt – an area consisting of farms, orchards, forests and wildlife.
Sounds pretty freaking cool, doesn’t it? It seems like it’s too good to be true, but the experiment is still going and people living in Auroville seem happy. Perhaps this is the first step toward a better society?
