Adyar's Slightly International Convention 2013

The Future? of the Adyar Theosophical Society

Adyar’s

Slightly International

Convention

Dave Marsland

With only 20 out of about 60 countries officially

represented it becomes increasingly clear that the

Adyar Theosophical Society Headquarters is only

clinging by its fingertips to its international status.

Fundamental structural change is on the way as

Theosophy moves away from the centralised,

hierarchical Adyar based Theosophical Society

Well, a day out in Blackpool may not be a specifically Theosophical event but at

least members would feel that they got some benefit. Adyar seems to represent

a black hole for Theosophical finances with no discernable return on the

money drained from groups around the world, yet the Theosophical elite

expects members to pay up anyway.

Here is the “How Many Turned Up” statement from the 2013 Adyar Convention

About 1058 delegates from over twenty countries are attending the 138th International Convention

General Secretaries and other representatives of the Theosophical Society in various countries presented greetings on behalf of their members, as listed below:

General Secretaries:

Mr Ebrony Peteli, Africa, East andCentral

Mr Jack Hartmann, Africa, South

Mrs Linda Oliveira, Australia

Mr Marcos L. B. de Resende, Brazil

Ms Marja Artamaa, Finland

Ms Tran Thi Kim-Dieu, France

Mrs Manuela Kaulich, Germany

Mr S. Sundaram, India

Mr Antonio Girardi, Italy

Ms Angeles Torra Buron, Spain

Mr Tim Boyd, USA

Representatives:

Mrs Breda Zagar, Org.Secy, Slovenia

Mr B. L. Bhattacharya, Presidential Representative, Bangladesh

Mr N. C. Raghava, Asia, East and South East

Mr Jan Jelle Keppler, Belgium

Ms Norah Rocabado, Bolivia

Mr Wim Leys, Netherlands

Ms Sherry Clayton Park, New Zealand

Mrs Agnes Gasemyr, Norway

Mr Alex Besputin, Russia

Ms Raisa Kalashnikova, Ukraine

Mr Bhupendra R. Vora, a General Council member, on behalf of the United Kingdom and Ms Maria Widjaja on behalf of Indonensia conveyed greetings.

1058 delegates is very impressive but only 20 countries represented is nothing to shout about and not surprisingly, no comment is made on this poor showing. There is not much in the way of greetings from unrepresented countries. By comparison 28 countries were represented at the 2010 (135^th) Annual Convention with an attendance of 1200. The 2010 showing is better but does already indicate a lack of international support. The dropdown to 2013 is significant especially as the Society is expected to hold an election for a new international president in 2014.

It is certainly likely that some members of unmentioned national sections attended on an unofficial basis and I will no doubt receive emails about this, but the low level of official representation is revealing. The Adyar based Theosophical Society has organisations in about 60 countries, so for only one third to bother to be represented at the annual convention clearly indicates that fundamental change is on the way. It is unusual that England is not represented and that greetings were conveyed on behalf of the United Kingdom when there is no United Kingdom section. It seems, however, that the convention is hard pressed to receive greetings from anywhere which indicates either a lack of interest or deliberate distancing by national sections.

The first reason for non representation may be the falling membership with some sections not now having the resources to send a delegate and of course there may be a reaction within the wealthier sections against paying for international “swanning about” with nothing in return. If membership levels are the problem, there is clearly no strategy for dealing with this pressing issue and the Adyar leadership’s indifference is made clear by the reference to members as “BALLAST” to keep the ship stable.

To many Theosophists, the Adyar headquarters has little relevance to either Theosophy or their own local Theosophical group and some want it off their backs. It has become a burden both financially and psychologically with some members questioning the need to support a headquarters from which they get nothing while the national leaderships resist change by clinging to notions of tradition and have an inability to conceive of Theosophy without Adyar. It looks, however, like support for the Adyar headquarters is now waning even among the national section leaderships and there are reports that financial support for Adyar is already diminishing as sections start to look for an alternative organisational model or even consider the possibility of no international organisation at all.

Adyar’s isolation from the international membership indicates that the Adyar controllers have clearly decided that they can manage without an international society and will probably take no action as the Adyar based Theosophical Society breaks-up. There is currently a widespread belief that what is currently the Indian National Section will embrace Adyar and be happy to support it on a stand-alone basis. Sole Indian support for Adyar has yet to be tested and to my knowledge has not been openly discussed. Family control of an India only Adyar would certainly become a contentious issue with the Indian section more ready to confront this issue rather than ignore it as the international elite have done in the past. The Adyar Estate itself has a lot going for it and it may have a valuable role within a future Theosophical movement but it is unlikely that it will continue as an international headquarters.

The tragedy of these Adyar conventions is that they provide an opportunity for the Theosophical Society ruling elite to meet and make decisions which notoriously benefit themselves. They are consistently

oblivious to the aspirations and needs of the members that they are supposed to represent and who ultimately pay for all this. With the membership regarded by leadership as having the function of ballast then this indifference can only be expected. There is still widespread doubt as to whether an election for international president will actually be held and concern that another attempt will be made by the General Council to cheat the members out of their right to vote in any such election. No public statements were made on these subjects at the time of the convention to clarify matters and a large proportion of members continue to mistrust the General Council.

Perhaps if a presidential election is actually held, it would be appropriate to place an option beneath the ballot paper boxes for candidates entitled; "None of the above and separation of our National Section from the Adyar Theosophical Society". This would be an opportunity to gauge the mood within the so far discounted membership and also prompt prospective candidates to address questions regarding reform and trust of the system. Laws on organisations vary from country to country but any national section indicating a majority of members in favour of breaking with Adyar may have a contractual obligation to respond to this.

The silence and secrecy of the General Council only reinforces the impression of indifference and contempt for the members. If they continue to operate in this way, the General Council will increasingly look like a debating society stranded on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea, deluding themselves as to their power and importance and having lost touch with, and all relevance to, the rapidly decreasing number of paid up members that they claim to represent.

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As a comparison, here are the national representation figures and total attendance for the 2010 Annual Convention. Apart from Indonesia, none of the countries represented in 2010 and absent in 2013 sent greetings. The greetings from the hitherto unheard of United Kingdom section may indicate a change in the English and Scottish sections.