Fair trade and spirituality: The case of the ‘Fair Trade Twin Towns’ of Pondicherry and Auroville (southern India)[Commerce équitable et spiritualité: Le cas du « Territoire jumelé de commerce équitable » Pondichéry et Auroville (lnde du sud)]

The "fair trade towns" campaign aims to mobilize citizens at the local level for more justice in trade and sustainability through their consumption practices. This article examines the case of the Pondicherry and Auroville twin initiative in south-eastern India. This initiative is marked by the imprint of a form of humanist spirituality carried by Aurobindo Ackroyd Ghose, more commonly Sri Aurobindo, in Pondicherry, and Mirra Alfassa, known as "Mother", in Auroville. We analyze how this spiritual imprint contributes both to the dynamics of this initiative and to its limits. In particular, we underline that if the spirituality of the actors on this territory constitutes a cement of the initiative, its material development is also slowed down by spiritual attributes materialized through the network of the actors and the specificity of the productions on the territory.