Your Excellency Shri Amit Shah,

We have received the information that Mr. Serge Maïni’s visa was revoked by the Secretary of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation a few days ago. He received an Exit Visa from the FRRO to leave India per July 1, 2023. His Entry Visa was valid until the end of December 2025.

This is an unexpected decision with far reaching consequences for the Earth Institute and its planned work all over the globe, for which Satprem is the Director. It appears that this decision was not preceded by a fair and just hearing nor by any explanation. At the same time, it is negatively impacting numerous people and organizations, including UNESCO, Indian and foreign governments, and the reputation of Auroville itself.

Serge Maini, French national, lived and worked 34 years in Auroville. He is also known as Satprem, ‘the one who speaks the truth’, a name given to him by Champaklal, Sri Aurobindo’s attendant. He is an architect, specializing in and one of the world’s leaders in Earthen Architecture with the Auroville Earth Institute, which he founded. As director of this institute, he was awarded the UNESCO Chair for Asia in the field of Earthen Architecture. He also received many international awards including the 2016 United Nations Climate Change Award under the Low Carbon category for the community center in Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh.

Serge Maini taught in many organizations, including government institutions how to construct buildings of a high quality that are sustainable, ecological responsible and earthquake resistant.

With a view to the Crown Road project in Auroville, Serge Maini invested more than 300 hours to do accurate research ‘on the spot’ and wrote many detailed progress and evaluation reports, substantiated with clarifying photos and references to relevant documents and Indian laws. He proposed better materials or methods of construction and gave recommendations how to implement them, without payment.

We find it unfortunate that the Auroville Governing Board and its internal Auroville Town Development Council did not enter into a dialogue with him, or implement any of his recommendations, as a result of which the quality of the road construction does not meet international or Indian standards.

The Auroville International Board, the International Advisory Council and the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation met in Auroville in February 2023. It was commonly agreed to encourage a culture of dialogue, overall collaboration and to raise the quality and speed to construct the City the Earth needs: The City of Auroville.

Serge Maini, whose expertise is highly respected within India and worldwide, could be one of the pillars to guarantee a sustainable, high quality, accurate construction.

We take this opportunity to note that Auroville has been conceived by The Mother as a living laboratory in which reproducible models and solutions are being worked out in many areas, for the benefit of the surrounding area, India and the whole world.

Everyone who receives the call to participate in this Auroville experiment brings with him a backpack with all the imprints, formations, influences that have shaped him, with all the values of his own culture, the beliefs and ideals, concepts and hopes of his specific and unique nature. They are people of good will who long for a new world, a different world, who know that the world as it is makes no sense, because it is dominated by falsehood, power and profiteering, by suffering and misery, by poverty, hunger, disease, ignorance, by chaos and war.

This Auroville experiment is a fascinating venture, an ongoing process, there are no ready- made recipes, formulas or rules for this experiment in human coexistence. The Aurovilians are struggling to shed or transform the cultural and psychological baggage of centuries, if not millennia.

Keeping this in mind, we request you:
To revoke the EXIT Visa for Mr. Serge Maini, founder and director of the Auroville Earth Institute who has invested a lot of voluntary work for a well-constructed and sustainable Crown Road.
And to initiate for a tripartite meeting with him, your Ministry and the Auroville Governing Board to foster a good dialogue and fruitful collaboration with respect and homage to the Charter of Auroville and the Foundation Act to foster the human unity.

It is our highest aspiration to contribute to the City the Earth needs. Yours respectfully,

Christian Feuillette AVI Chairman
Friederike Mühlhans AVI Secretary
For the Board of Auroville International (AVI)