Week 67: Pondicherry
French colonization in India
I have always thought of India as a country that was colonized by the British, and when I think of French colonization in Asia I think of Indochine, or Vietnam. But the French also had a longstanding presence in India, and the Indian city of Pondicherry holds the remnants of French colonization.
France was the last of the major European maritime powers of the 17th century to enter the East India trade. The English and Dutch East India companies were set up in 1600 and 1602 respectively, and both companies continued to build trading posts on the shores of India.
Six decades later, in 1674, the French East India Company set up a trading centre at Pondicherry, and this outpost eventually became the chief French settlement in India.
Pondicherry (Pondichéry in French) is located on the southeast coast of India and, surrounded by the Bay of Bengal and the state of Tamil Nadu. The city was separated by a canal into the French Quarter and the Indian Quarter.
The French governor François Martin entered into extended negotiations with the sultans of Golconda through the intercession of several roving French merchants and doctors who were in favor with the sultan, trading in jewelry and precious stones, which had become highly fashionable in European courts.
In 1693, during the Nine Years' War, Pondicherry was captured by the Dutch. The governor of the Dutch Coromandel sailed with a fleet of seventeen ships and 1,600 men from Nagapattinam and bombarded Pondicherry for two weeks, after which Francois Martin surrendered it. At the Peace of Ryswick, it was agreed by all parties to return conquered territories, and in 1699, Pondicherry was handed back to the French.
In spite of a treaty between the British and French to not interfere in regional Indian affairs, their colonial conquests continued. The French expanded their influence at the court of the Nawab of Bengal and increased their trading activity in Bengal. In 1756, the French encouraged the Nawab (Siraj ud-Daulah) to attack and take the British Fort William in Calcutta. This led to the Battle of Plassey in 1757, where the British decisively defeated the Nawab and his French allies, resulting in the extension of British power over the entire province of Bengal.
In 1765, Pondicherry was returned to France in accordance with a 1763 peace treaty with Britain. In 1769, the French East India Company, failing financially, was abolished by the French Crown, which assumed administration of the French possessions in India. During the next 50 years, Pondicherry changed hands between France and Britain with the regularity of their wars and peace treaties.
In 1816, after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, the five establishments of Pondichéry, Chandernagore, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam and the lodges at Machilipatnam, Kozhikode and Surat were returned to France.
On November 1, 1954, the four enclaves of Pondichéry, Yanam, Mahe, and Karikal were de facto transferred to the Indian Union and became the Union Territory of Puducherry.
