The union territory of

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 tal ...

has five official names, expressing its linguistic diversity, past-French heritage and legacy of British India. French,

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

are five official languages of Puducherry. The later two are official only in

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 wi ...

and Mahe respectively.

History

French continued to remain as the official language even after the de facto cession of

French establishments of 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 ...

in November 1954. This status quo was maintained after de jure transfer in August 1962 by the Puducherry assembly resolution in 1963 that intended to keep the official status of French albeit include other native languages that are spoken in Puducherry (i.e. Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam) along with Hindi. Owing to anti-Hindi agitations in South India in the subsequent years removed the scenario to include Hindi into the list of official languages and paved way for inclusion of English instead. These agitations had profound impact on the Official language policy of India which guaranteed indefinite use of English along with Hindi. As of today, all the southern states (

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

) and Puducherry correspond with the

Union government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

and vice versa solely in English.

Names of Puducherry

Puducherry in French is known as Territoire de Pondichéry and the name in the three native languages that are official in the Union territory of Puduchery are given below:

References

:Footnotes: {{colend Languages of India Official languages of India India-related lists South India

History

Names of Puducherry

See also

References