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June - July 01
The concept of CIRHU
- by Alain Bernard
A Rs 129 crore
(US$ 28 million) proposal to give a new impetus to research and
experimentation in the development of Auroville has been
submitted to the Government of India.
In January 2000,
Aurovilians received from Dr. Kireet Joshi, the Chairman of the
Auroville Foundation, a thick document entitled CIRHU, a concept
paper. CIRHU is the acronym for Centre for International
Research for Human Unity. Kireet envisaged the future city being
progressively organized around education and research, and this
would give to CIRHU the world-wide dimension that it is meant to
embody. Kireet formulated the concept of CIRHU as resting upon
four needs:
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the need to
deepen, widen and heighten the higher levels of educational
research
-
the need to
harness expertise, scholarship and professional experience,
which are already available in Auroville, and also to invite
help from relevant institutions in the country and in the
world as well as from visiting scholars and teachers
-
the need to give
a more concrete shape to understanding the concept of human
unity that underlies the Charter of Auroville
-
the need to
provide a suitable environment and programme of higher
education to the students of the Sri Aurobindo International
Institute of Educational Research.
Kireet's proposed
organization for CIRHU comprises a central faculty and seven
other faculties:
The central faculty
would be interdisciplinary, would receive from other faculties
the results of their specific themes of research, and promote
them by a process of interchange and enrichment. This faculty
would have five major themes of research: Evolution, Synthesis
of Knowledge, Synthesis of Culture, Human Unity and Next
Species.
The seven other
faculties would concentrate upon different aspects that are
relevant to the theme of human unity in the context of
evolutionary progression:
-
Indian Culture
and Human Unity;
-
East, West and
Human Unity;
-
Education for
Human Unity;
-
Arts, Crafts and
Technologies;
-
Studies in Sri
Aurobindo and The Mother;
-
Perfection of
the Human body,
-
Humanity, Nature
and Development.
The first five year
phase of CIRHU would include establishing a resource center with
a library of 50.000 reference books for research purposes - an
indispensable tool if Auroville wants to be able to attract and
retain high level researchers - and the development of
students/scholars/teachers exchange programmes.
Kireet's original
idea was to have all the faculties under CIRHU. However, there
soon came the perception that CIRHU should retain its character
as a specialized high level research center. The seven faculties
were thus "separated" from CIRHU and put directly
under SAIIER - the Sri Aurobindo International Institute of
Educational Research - the umbrella organization for almost all
the educational activities of Auroville which receives grants
from the Government of India for promoting the development of
systems of non-formal education in India.
From April 2002 the
10th Five-year Plan of India will begin. In order to obtain a
large increase in annual grants for education in Auroville,
SAIIER has formulated a development proposal which includes a
substantial funding request for CIRHU. The proposal has taken
thirteen months to elaborate, and has involved cooperation
between a large group of Aurovilians involved in very diverse
activities, including not only education and artistic
activities, but also environment, agriculture, water, health,
martial arts and physical education, architecture and planning,
information technology, communications and multimedia, studies
on Mother and Sri Aurobindo, the Unity Pavilion in the
International Zone, Indian and Tamil cultures, village action
and the reception of visitors - it would probably be quicker to
mention what is not included in this development plan!
The proposal is
an attempt to give a new impetus to research and experimentation
in the development of Auroville. This explains the size of the
financial support which is requested from the Government of
India: 129 crore rupees (about US$ 28 million).
Auroville must make swifter progress towards its integral
realization. The moment of acceleration has come.
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