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There’s No Government In Auroville

Auroville

Discover Auroville, the city with no government, no politics, and inhabitants from all over the world.

Deep down in India, in the Viluppuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu, there’s a small “universal” town named Auroville, or the City of Dawn, that has no government, and is based on peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities.

Auroville was founded in 1968 by “The Mother”, Mirra Alfassa, and was designed by architect Roger Anger, and was first announced at 1964. In her statement, Alfassa said that the township 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. And that the ultimate purpose of Auroville was to realize human unity.

First of all, it is important to understand that money, paper and coin currency, has no real value in the town. Instead, residents are given account numbers to connect to a centralized account. All residents are expected to contribute to to the community monthly, wherever and however it is possible. Some give back in the form of work, others in the form of money, and even kind deeds.

The town also has a system of “maintenance”, which makes sure that Aurovilians who are in need can receive monthly maintenance to cover simple basic needs of life from the community.

Even though the government of India operates the estate funds officially, it is in fact self-sufficient. Their income comes largely from guest houses, building construction units, information technology, small and medium scale businesses, producing and re-selling items such as handmade paper for stationery items, as well as producing their well-known incense sticks, which can be bought in Auroville’s own shop in Puducherry, as well as around India and abroad.

the city was originally build to house 50,000 residents, but during the initial 20 years there were only about 400 individuals from 20 countries. The number number rose to 2,000 individuals from 40 countries, and currently there are 2,487 residents in Auroville, 1854 adults and 633 children, from 49 countries.

This might be the first time you hear of the city, but it is in fact a very interesting place to visit. Even though it sounds odd and unlike how cities around the world operates, it could be how future human colonies survive. So far the community has hold strong. Let’s see what their future has to offer.

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