French India Totally Explained

Everything about French India totally explained

French India is a general name for the former French possessions in India. These included Pondichéry (now Puducherry), Karikal and Yanaon (now Yañam) on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar coast, and Chandernagore in Bengal. In addition there were lodges (loges) located at Machilipatnam, Kozhikode and Surat, but they were merely nominal remnants of French factories.
The total area amounted to 203 mi² (526 km²), of which 113 mi² (293 km²) belonged to the territory of Pondichéry. In 1901 the total population amounted to 273,185.

History

The first French expedition to India is believed to have taken place in the reign of Francis I, when two ships were fitted out by some merchants of Rouen to trade in eastern seas; they sailed from Le Havre and were never afterwards heard of. In 1604 a company was granted letters patent by Henry IV, but the project failed. Fresh letters patent were issued in 1615, and two ships went to India, only one returning. La Compagnie française des Indes orientales (French East India Company) was formed under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu (1642) and reconstructed under Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1664), sending an expedition to Madagascar. In 1667 the French India Company sent out another expedition, under the command of François Caron (who was accompanied by a Persian named Marcara), which reached Surat in 1668 and established the first French factory in India. In 1669, Marcara succeeded in establishing another French factory at Masulipatam. In 1672, Saint Thomas was taken but the French were driven out by the Dutch. Chandernagore (present-day Chandannagar) was established in 1673, with the permission of Nawab Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal. In 1674, the French acquired Valikondapuram from the Sultan of Bijapur and thus the foundation of Pondichéry was laid. By 1720, the French lost their factories at Surat, Masulipatam and Bantam to the British.
   On February 4, 1673, Bellanger, a French officer, took up residence in the Danish Lodge in Pondichéry and the French Period of Pondichéry began. In 1674 François Martin, the first Governor, started to build Pondichéry and transformed it from a small fishing village into a flourishing port-town. The French were in constant conflict, in India, with the Dutch and the English. In 1693 the Dutch took over and fortified Pondichéry considerably. The French regained the town in 1699 through the Treaty of Ryswick signed on September 20, 1697.
   Between 1720 and 1741, the objectives of the French were purely commercial. The French occupied Yanam (about 840 km north-east of Pondichéry on Andhra Coast) in 1723, Mahe on Malabar Coast in 1725 and Karaikal (about 150 km south of Pondichéry) in 1739. After 1742 political motives began to overshadow the desire for commercial gain. All factories were fortified for the purpose of defence.
   In the 18th century the town of Pondichéry was laid out on a grid pattern and grew considerably. Able Governors like Pierre Christoph Le Noir (1726-1735) and Pierre Benoît Dumas (1735-1741) expanded the Pondichéry area and made it a large and rich town. Soon after his arrival in 1741, the most famous French Governor of Pondichéry and all French India, Joseph François Dupleix began to cherish the ambition of a French Empire in India but his superiors had less interest. French ambition clashed with the British interests in India and a period of military skirmishes and political intrigues began. Under the command of the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau, Dupleix's army successfully controlled the area between Hyderabad and Cape Comorin. But then Robert Clive arrived in India in 1744, a dare-devil British officer who dashed the hopes of Dupleix to create a French Colonial India.
After a defeat and failed peace talks, Dupleix was recalled to France in 1754.
   In spite of a treaty between the British and French not to interfere in local politics, the intrigues continued. For example, in this period the French were also expanding their influence at the court of the Nawab of Bengal, and expanding their trade volume in Bengal. In 1756, the French encouraged the Nawab (Siraj ud-Daulah) to attack and conquer 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, and extended British power over the entire province of Bengal.
   Subsequently France sent Lally-Tollendal to regain the French losses and chase the British out of India. Lally arrived in Pondichéry in 1758, had some initial success and razed Fort St. David in Cuddalore District to the ground in 1758, but strategic mistakes by Lally led to the loss of the Hyderabad region, the Battle of Wandiwash, and the siege of Pondichéry in 1760. In 1761 Pondichéry was razed to the ground in revenge and lay in ruins for 4 years. The French had lost their hold now in South India too.
   In 1765 Pondichéry was returned to France after a peace treaty with Britain in Europe. Governor Jean Law de Lauriston set to rebuild the town on the old foundations and after five months 200 European and 2000 Tamil houses had been erected. During the next 50 years Pondichéry 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, Chandranagore, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam and the loges at Machilipattnam, Kozhikode and Surat were returned to France. Pondichéry had lost much of its former glory, and Chandernagore was eclipsed as a trading centre by the nearby British establishment of Calcutta (present-day Kolkata). Successive governors improved infrastructure, industry, law and education over the next 138 years.
   By decree of the January 25, 1871, French India was provided with an elective general council (Conseil général) and elective local councils (Conseil local). The results of this measure were not very satisfactory, and the qualifications for and the classes of the franchise were modified. The governor resided at Pondichéry, and was assisted by a council. There were two Tribunals d'instance (Tribunals of first instance) (at Pondichéry and Karikal) one Cour d'appel (Court of Appeal) (at Pondichéry) and five Justices de paix (Justice of the Peace). The agricultural produce consisted of rice, earth-nuts, tobacco, betel nuts and vegetables.
   The independence of India in August 1947 gave impetus to the union of France's Indian possessions with former British India. The lodges in Machilipatnam, Kozhikode and Surat were ceded to India in October 1947. An agreement between France and India in 1948 agreed to an election in France's remaining Indian possessions to choose their political future. Governance of Chandernagore was ceded to India on 2 May 1950, and was merged with West Bengal state on 2 October 1955. On November 1, 1954, after long years of freedom struggle the four enclaves of Pondichéry, Yanam, Mahe, and Karikal were de facto transferred to the Indian Union and became the Union Territory of Pondichéry. The de jure union of French India with India didn't take place until 1963, when the French Parliament in Paris ratified the treaty with India.

List of Governors of French Establishments in India

Commissaires:

François Caron, 1668 - 1672
François Baron, 1672-1681
François Martin, 1681 – November 1693 Dutch occupation, September 1693 - September 1699 <-- Treaty of Ryswick (1697) Gouverneurs Généraux:
François Martin, September 1699 - December 31 1706
Pierre Dulivier, January 1707-July 1708
Guillaume André d'Hébert, 1708 - 1712
Pierre Dulivier, 1712 -1717
Guillaume André d'Hébert, 1717 - 1718
Pierre André Prévost de La Prévostière, August 1718 – 11 October 1721
Pierre Christoph Le Noir (Acting), 1721-1723
Joseph Beauvollier de Courchant, 1723–1726
Pierre Christoph Le Noir, 1726–1734
Pierre Benoît Dumas, 1734–1741
Joseph François Dupleix, January 14 1742 - October 15 1754
Charles Godeheu, Le commissaire (Acting), October 15 1754–1754
Georges Duval de Leyrit, 1754–1758
Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally-Tollendal, 1758 – January 16 1761 First British occupation, January 15 1761 - June 25 1765 <-- Treaty of Paris (1763)
Jean Law de Lauriston, 1765–1766
Antoine Boyellau, 1766–1767
Jean Law de Lauriston, 1767 – January 1777
Guillaume de Bellecombe, seigneur de Teirac, January 1777–1782
Charles Joseph Pâtissier, Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau, 1783–1785
Le Vicomte, François de Souillac, 1785
David Charpentier de Cossigny, October 1785–1787
Thomas, comte de Conway, October 1787–1789
Camille Charles Leclerc, Chevalier de Fresne,1789–1792
Dominique Prosper de Chermont, November 1792–1793
L. Leroux de Touffreville, 1793 Second British occupation, August 23 1793 – 18 June 1802 <-- Treaty of Amiens (1802)
Charles Matthieu Isidore, Comte Decaen, June 18 1802 - August 1803
Louis François Binot, 1803

Third British occupation, August 1803 – 26 September 1816 <-- Treaty of Paris (1814)

André Julien Comte Dupuy, September 26 1816 – October 1825

Joseph Cordier, Marie Emmanuel (Acting), October 1825 – June 19 1826

Eugène Panon, Comte Desbassayns de Richemont, 1826 – August 2 1828

Joseph Cordier, Marie Emmanuel (Acting), August 2 1828 – April 11 1829

Auguste Jacques Nicolas Peureux de Mélay, April 11 1829 – May 3 1835

Hubert Jean Victor, Marquis de Saint-Simon, May 3 1835 – April 1840

Paul de Nourquer du Camper, April 1840 - 1844

Louis Pujol, 1844 - 1849

Hyacinth Marie de Lalande de Calan, 1849 - 1850

Philippe Achille Bédier, 1851 - 1852

Raymond de Saint-Maur, August 1852 - April 1857

Alexandre Durand d'Ubraye, April 1857 - January 1863

Napoléon Joseph Louis Bontemps, January 1863 - June 1871

Antoine-Léonce Michaux, June 1871 - November 1871

Pierre Aristide Faron, November 1871 - 1875

Adolph Joseph Antoine Trillard, 1875 - 1878

Léonce Laugier, February 1879 - April 1881

Théodore Drouhet, 1881 - October 1884

Étienne Richaud, October 1884 - 1886

Édouard Manès, 1886 - 1888

Georges Jules Piquet, 1888 - 1889

Louis Hippolyte Marie Nouet, 1889 - 1891

Léon Émile Clément-Thomas, 1891 - 1896

Louis Jean Girod, 1896 - February 1898

François Pierre Rodier, February 1898 - January 11 1902

Pelletan (Acting), January 11 1902 - 1902

Victor Louis Marie Lanrezac, 1902 - 1904

Philema Lemaire, August 1904 - April 1905

Joseph Pascal François, April 1905 - October 1906

Gabriel Louis Angoulvant, October 1906 - December 3 1907

Adrien Jules Jean Bonhoure, 1908 - 1909

Ernest Fernand Lévecque, 1909 - July 9 1910

Alfred Albert Martineau, July 9 1910 - July 1911

Pierre Louis Alfred Duprat, July 1911 - November 1913

Alfred Martineau, November 1913 - June 29 1918

(unknown), June 29 1918 - February 21 1919

Louis Martial Innocent Gerbinis, February 21 1919 - February 11 1926

Pierre Jean Henri Didelot, 1926–1928

Robert Paul Marie de Guise, 1928–1931

François Adrien Juvanon, 1931–1934

Léon Solomiac, August 1934 – 1936

Horace Valentin Crocicchia, 1936-1938

Louis Alexis Étienne Bonvin, September 26, 1938–1945

Nicolas Ernest Marie Maurice Jeandin, 1945–1946

Charles François Marie Baron, March 20 1946 - August 20 1947 Inde française became a Territoire d'outre-mer for France in 1946. Commissaires:

Charles François Marie Baron, August 20 1947 - May 1949

Charles Chambon, May 1949 - July 31 1950

André Ménard, July 31 1950 - October 1954

Georges Escargueil, October 1954 - November 1 1954 de facto transfer to Indian Union High Commissioners:

Mr.Kewal Singh November 1 1954–1957

M.K. Kripalani 1957–1958

L.R.S. Singh 1958–1958

AS Bam 1960

Sarat Kumar Dutta 1961–1961Further Information

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