Weird Spread of Puducherry

Puducherry. It consists of the former French colonies in India - Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. I didn’t realize those parts are scattered across India! 


 That looks crazy, but it’s true. And therein a fascinating tale as told by Sagar. The French came to India and decided to form alliances with regional rulers. In 1673, one such area they got was Puducherry. A small village, which, over time, extended to include other nearby villages. It is important to understand the French were not colonizing the area. Rather:

“These villages were granted to them one at a time by local rulers, so they were discontinuous pieces of land that supplied the main settlement.”

It was so haphazard that:

“Its (just the region within Tamil Nadu alone) map is a scattered chessboard of enclaves and unevenly distributed villages and communes.”

Imagine that!

 

The other ‘parts’ of Puducherry as shown in the map above were even tinier. And no, under French rule, those other trading villages outside TN were not considered part of the unit we call Puducherry today.

 

Why didn’t France annex the nearby areas to make the TN part a continuous land mass? Well, they were only there for trade, not imperialism. Plus:

“After 1816 the treaties with Britain froze their territory and barred them from expanding.”

~~

 

In 1947, India got its independence. But only from the British parts, not the French or Portuguese parts (Goa). At that point, remember:

“In 1954, France was still a massive colonial power, especially in Africa and Oceania. Almost all of northern, western and central Africa was Francophone.”

The French were worried that “an unconditional treaty with India might encourage other nations to rebel against their colonial masters”.

 

Since French rule had been without violence and occupation, India was accommodative to France wanting to protect “its image and stature”. A special agreement was reached between the two countries:

“France handed over the territories and later signed a Treaty of Cession with India in 1956. The treaty required India to keep the special administrative status of the former French enclaves and to protect their culture and identity.”

 

That is why Puducherry is a Union Territory, and why Tamil Nadu has no role in its administration ever since.

“Although the French aren’t there anymore, its streets and municipalities still echo the French legacy of the past.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Killing Gays

Killing in the name of God: it’s been done for centuries and continues to happen today. But killing people because they are gay? That’s a phenomenon unique to the “Abrahamic God of the desert”, writes Richard Rodriguez . The most recent example of that was the massacre in a gay club in Florida, the worst mass murder in the US since 9/11. But what’s the connection of the “desert religions” to homophobia? Is it just coincidence? No, says Rodriguez: “In such a place, the call to belief was tribal, not individualistic. Sexuality was an expression of faith to increase the tribe. Allegiance to God and to one’s ancestors was fulfilled by giving birth.” Rodriguez also raises a very interesting point about context being very important in how we perceive the same (or similar) actions: “(Florida murderer) Mateen might have been offended by the sight of two men kissing in Orlando, but one wonders what he have would made of Arabian and Afghan societies, where men stroll arm in arm and e...
Read more

Brexit

Before the Brexit polls, my dad asked me the reasons for Leave. I googled and didn’t find any reasons which sounded very convincing. And yet Brexit happened. What was I missing? What articles had Google missed?! Today, you’d think that the usual after-the-event geniuses would be able to come up with reasons. So what are we hearing now? Why did they vote to Leave? 1)       There were those who always hated being part of the EU, joined by those who thought immigration was taking away jobs, and the racists who just hated immigrants. (Funnily enough, the immigrant issue wasn’t really that big a deal. At least not for Britain. I wonder if Angela Merkel rolling out the red carpet for Syrians created a perception problem that couldn’t be fought with facts). 2)      Then there were the many who felt that only the city of London benefitted while the rest of Britain got nothing. 3)      For some politicians, this was a...
Read more

Viruses - Bacteriophages

One of the chapters in Pranay Lal’s Invisible Empire starts with these lines: “Say the word ‘virus’ and the first thought that comes to the mind is of the diseases they cause.” But they can also be the cure for some diseases, he writes.   The Britisher, Ernest Hankin, was sent to India. His job was to “protect British troops from infectious diseases”. Like cholera. By 1894, he was curious about the Maagh Mela in Allahabad, on the banks of the Ganga. Over 3 million devotees arrived every day during that festival. He inspected the waters during this period: “There was very little bacterial contamination of their waters despite the multitudes of people and their cattle bathing in them, discarding their waste and burning corpses along their banks.” By 1895, he had written a paper that the Ganga was cleaner than most British or European rivers , “despite the way they were treated”. He wondered why that was the case, how the Ganga managed to avoid the decay seen in European ...
Read more