from The Hindu:
Through the month of March, members of the international community of Auroville will spend time in Chennai, to help people here understand their culture through the ‘Auroville festival’, which began on Sunday.
Inaugurating the event, Governor K. Rosaiah said: “Right from its establishment, it has been striving to build a spiritual society dedicated to human unity. I congratulate Auroville for fostering material and spiritual researches and for being an embodiment of human unity.”
Eminent scientist M.S. Swaminathan recalled his days as chairman of Auroville. “The city is a unique human experiment, respecting and celebrating diversity and pluralism,” he said, adding he had two dreams when he was the chairman — setting up a university of human unity and conducting a global convention on diversity in human beings.
Aster Patel, member of the governing body of Auroville, and Julian Lines, member of Auroville International Council, were also present. The festival is supported by The Hindu .
Auroville is a universal township, with over 2,000 residents from various nationalities, conceptualised by Mirra Alfasa in an experiment in human unity.
Over the course of 20 days, people from Auroville will showcase their achievements in arts, education and sustainable living.
For more details, visit http://festival.auroville.org/ or facebook.com/AurovilleFestival
more photos from Olivier:
