logo
Why some residents say Auroville has lost its way

Why some residents say Auroville has lost its way

Time of Indiaa day ago
Why some residents say Auroville has lost its way
Asha PrakashBosco Dominique
TNN
Jul 6, 2025, 17:13 IST IST
It started out as an experimental community based on human unity, but 60 years after its founding, the township finds its future mired in controversy and contradictions
A little over three hours' drive south from Chennai will bring you to Auroville , the lush expanse of rural land that mostly lies in Viluppuram district of Tamil Nadu with some spillover into the Union territory of Puducherry. But this corner of coastal territory was not always so green, or well-known. It is synonymous with Puducherry, the former French settlement associated with the renowned yogi Sri Aurobindo, and is an outcome of the vision of the Mother, as his French spiritual collaborator Mirra Alfassa is known, and their followers. But that vision is now hotly contested and at the core of an existential challenge for the very community to which it gave birth.
A stark departure
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

District in-charge officers to inspect schools twice a mth
District in-charge officers to inspect schools twice a mth

Time of India

time18 hours ago

  • Time of India

District in-charge officers to inspect schools twice a mth

Jaipur: The education department has instructed all district in-charges to inspect schools under their jurisdiction twice a month. The officials were instructed to observe the progress and implementation of various programmes and schemes run to improve the quality of education. With the second phase of the enrolment drive underway in schools, officials were also instructed to check improvements needed in schools. District in-charges will have to conduct field visits once during a working day in a month and one Saturday in a month. After the visit, the in-charges, through the Shala Sambalan App, will assess the learning level of students in different classes and submit report by 7th of every month. "During the visit programme, the district in-charge officer will compulsorily visit at least one residential school operating in the district," said education secretary Krishna Kunal. All the district in-charges were instructed to organise a joint meeting with the chief district education officers for primary and secondary, the district project coordinator for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the principal of the district education and training institute, all chief block education officers, among other officials. TNN

Who Really Invented The Airplane? The Century-Old Debate Still Divides The Skies
Who Really Invented The Airplane? The Century-Old Debate Still Divides The Skies

India.com

time19 hours ago

  • India.com

Who Really Invented The Airplane? The Century-Old Debate Still Divides The Skies

New Delhi: Ask anyone who built the first airplane, and they will tell you – the Wright brothers. But dig a little deeper; the story is not so straightforward. There has been an unspoken, and often physically violent, war over the past one hundred years between continents, cultures and claims. In the United States, the conquest and flight of Orville and Wilbur Wright, self-taught architects and bicycle mechanics, in their aircraft in 1903 is held with great pride. But in Brazil, one name often comes up – Alberto Santos-Dumont. Santos-Dumont is a member of a surrounding coffee-farming family. In 1906, he piloted his machine (14-Bis) in front of a crowd of Parisians and got an international recognition by the International Aeronautics Federation. This is where the story divides. Flying Before the World's Eyes The early 1900s were full of dreamers racing to build a machine that could fly not with balloons, but powered engines and wings. Paris became the heart of that dream. Engineers, investors and inventors flocked to the French capital. The city had money, metal, minds and momentum. Santos-Dumont soared right into this moment. On November 12, 1906, he flew 220 metres before hundreds of witnesses. No tricks. No launch rails. Just a man, a machine and a moment. A year later, he introduced another aircraft – the Demoiselle. It was light, quick and one of the first planes built for mass production. The Wright Brothers' Late Claim In 1908, the Wright brothers stepped forward and claimed they had flown five years earlier on a quiet December morning in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Few had seen it. Just five people. The evidence? A telegraph, a few blurry photographs and Orville's diary. French aviation circles were stunned. They had never heard of the Wrights making any public flight before this. Letters between American and European flying clubs had been regular, but there had been no word of a breakthrough from the Wrights for years. The brothers explained they were waiting on a patent. They feared theft. But by then, doubt had crept in. In Kitty Hawk, the wind reportedly blew at 40 kilometre per hour that day – strong enough to lift a glider without an engine. Supporters of the Wrights disagreed. By 1904 and 1905, they argued, the brothers had already developed far superior flyers. Their machines could bank, turn and sustain long flights – capabilities no one else had achieved. Tom Crouch, a historian who has spent a lifetime studying the brothers, puts it plainly – the Wrights knew, on that cold morning in 1903, that they had solved the riddle of powered flight. But they chose secrecy. They kept improving, away from the public eye, until 1908 when they finally stepped onto the European stage. And when they did, it changed everything. They flew before packed crowds. In France and Italy, they made over 200 flights. In one demonstration, Wilbur flew 124 kilometres without landing. European royalty lined up for a chance to fly with them. At that point, even French aviation pioneers like Ferdinand Ferber admitted that these were not flukes. This level of control did not happen overnight. The Catapult Controversy But there remained a controversial issue. The Wrights launched the flyers on a catapult, essentially a mechanism that flung the plane into the air. European critics said this meant that the plane lacked the power to take off. Supporters countered that the catapult was just a tool, not a crutch. Still, Santos-Dumont needed no such help. His plane took off from wheels in front of a live crowd and on its own power. And the debate deepened. The Forgotten Flyers Lost in this duel were the many others who may have flown before or at least tried. It is claimed by some that a German who lived in the United States, Gustav Weißkopf (or Whitehead), flew as early as 1901. While some point to Richard Pearse in New Zealand with an October 1903 flight or an earlier March 1903 flight. Even earlier, in 1871, John Goodman, a South African, reportedly made the first manned glider flight decades before Kitty Hawk. Even earlier, in 1871, a South African man named John Goodman reportedly launched the first manned glider flight decades before Kitty Hawk. A memorial still stands in Howick near the site. That is why many aviation historians refuse to crown any single 'inventor'. Paul Jackson, who edited 'Jane's All the World's Aircraft' for 25 years, says the race to the skies was not won by a lone genius. It was the result of tireless and collective effort. 'No one just woke up one day, sketched a plane and flew. It took hundreds of minds, dozens of failures and years of determination,' he says. Recognition, or Lack of It Jackson believes Santos-Dumont, Whitehead, and others never got their due. He doe not mince words, 'In the end, it is the ones with the best lawyers who get remembered.' History, he argues, often rewards the wrong people. He points to Alexander Graham Bell who is famous for inventing the telephone. But in 2002, the US Congress acknowledged that the true inventor may have been Antonio Meucci – a poor Italian who shared a workshop with Bell. Marcia Cummings, a descendant of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, runs a blog uncovering buried truths of early flight. The Wrights once dragged Curtiss into court for patent infringement in 1909. She believes the Wrights tried to erase rivals like Curtiss from the story. But Amanda Wright Lane, great-grandniece of Orville and Wilbur, does not buy that. She has spent years preserving their legacy and says the brothers only wanted credit for what they achieved – nothing more, nothing less. 'I knew Orville. I do not believe he wanted to take anything from anyone. He just wanted the truth of their work to survive,' she says. And the Truth? The truth may never land on one runway. The airplane was not born in a single place. It took shape over decades in barns, backyards and crowded labs across continents. The sky, after all, has room for many stories.

Why some residents say Auroville has lost its way
Why some residents say Auroville has lost its way

Time of India

timea day ago

  • Time of India

Why some residents say Auroville has lost its way

Why some residents say Auroville has lost its way Asha PrakashBosco Dominique TNN Jul 6, 2025, 17:13 IST IST It started out as an experimental community based on human unity, but 60 years after its founding, the township finds its future mired in controversy and contradictions A little over three hours' drive south from Chennai will bring you to Auroville , the lush expanse of rural land that mostly lies in Viluppuram district of Tamil Nadu with some spillover into the Union territory of Puducherry. But this corner of coastal territory was not always so green, or well-known. It is synonymous with Puducherry, the former French settlement associated with the renowned yogi Sri Aurobindo, and is an outcome of the vision of the Mother, as his French spiritual collaborator Mirra Alfassa is known, and their followers. But that vision is now hotly contested and at the core of an existential challenge for the very community to which it gave birth. A stark departure

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store