The official standing of languages in

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: * Puducherry (union territory), a union territory of India ** Pondicherry, capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district, a district of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry t ...

is governed by the 1963 assembly resolution to continue French as official language and the subsequent ''Pondicherry Official Language Act, 1965'' which states under the heading "Official language of the Union territory" that

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

is the language to be used for all or any official purposes in the Union Territory, while

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

may be used in Mahé and

Yanam Yanam (Telugu: ''యానాం'') is a town located in the Yanam district in Puducherry. It has a population of 35,000 and is entirely surrounded by Andhra Pradesh. It was formerly a French colony for nearly 200 years, and, though united ...

respectively. The Act also stipulates that

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

may be used for any of the official purposes of the Union territory. An official mention in

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

Parliamentary debates during 2006 confirmed that the five official languages of Puducherry are

and French.

1956 Treaty of Cession

French was the

official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

under the Treaty of Cession 1956. French was also the official language of the ''Établissements français dans l'Inde'' ( French India) and it remained as

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...

official language of Pondicherry U.T by the ''Article XXVIII'' of Traité de Cession which states that, *
- The French language shall remain the official language of the Establishments so long as the elected representatives of the people shall not decide otherwise). While the Official Gazette of Puducherry has a trilingual heading (in English, Tamil and French), it is published exclusively in English.

1963 Resolution by Representative Assembly

The de-jure transfer of

French establishments in India French India, formally the ( en, French Settlements in India), was a Overseas territory (France), French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian Subcontinent that had initially been Factory (trading post), facto ...

was on the 16th of August, 1962. Then

Second Pondicherry Representative Assembly The Second Representative Assembly of Pondicherry ''Deuxième Assemblée Représentative de Pondichéry'' (9 September 1959 - 30 June 1963) succeeded the First Representative Assembly of Pondicherry and was constituted after the victory of Indian ...

had passed resolution by vote in May 1963 to express its desire to continue the official status of the French language. However, the same resolution expressed its want of the maternal languages spoken in the union territory to be considered along with Hindi and English as associative languages to French for all official and practical purposes.

Union Territories Act, 1963

For laying down the rules and regulations related to the union territories of India the act was passed in 1963. This act once again reconfirmed the assembly resolution that French shall continue to be used as an official language in Puduchuerry unless its legislative assembly does not decide otherwise.

Pondicherry Official Language Act, 1965

Considering the 1963 assembly resolution and 1963 act, the new additional official languages were recognized by The Pondicherry Official Language Act, 1965 (Act No. 3 of 1965). This act established that "''the Tamil language shall ..be the language to be used for all or any of the official purposes of the Union Territory''. It states that ''Provided that the Administrator may by like Notification, direct that in the case of Mahe area, the Malayalam language, and in the case of Yanam area, the Telugu language may be used for such official purposes and subject to such conditions as may be specified in such notification''". Finally, it states that "''Notwithstanding anything contained in section 3, and from the commencement of this Act, the English language may be used for all or any of the official purposes of the Union Territory''". During the early twentieth century, Tamil gained equal status alongside the existing French language. After the merger with India, Telugu and Malayalam also obtained the same status although with some restrictions. Though the status of each languages varies with respect to each district, when communicating in between districts of different languages, generally English is used for convenience. The three official languages are: #

: Language used by the union territory government, especially used when communicating within and between the Tamil majority districts of (

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

and

Karaikal Karaikal (Help:IPA/English, /kʌdɛkʌl/, french: Karikal Help:IPA/French, /kaʁikal/) is a town of the Indian States and territories of India, Union Territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. Karaikal was sold to the French by t ...

) along with issuing official decrees. #

: Used when communicating within Telugu district

. #

: Used when communicating within Malayalam district Mahé.

Demographics

In 2001, the number of people speaking in each official languages was: *

: 220,749 (In the Pondicherry and Karikal Districts) *

: 31,362 (In the Yanam District) *

: 36,823 (In the Mahe District) * French: Above 10,000

References

{{Reflist

External links

Pondicherry official website
Dravidian languages Languages of India Culture of Puducherry