The French community in India consists mainly of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n citizens of

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

ancestry who are descended from former French settlers and colonists who settled in India since the 17th century, as well as recent expatriates from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

History

The French in India are an artifact of the French presence there, which began in 1673 with the establishment of the

French East India Company The French East India Company (french: Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a colonial commercial enterprise, founded on 1 September 1664 to compete with the English (later British) and Dutch trading companies in th ...

and continued until 1962 when the French territory was formally transferred to India. The French presence was always minor compared with the British presence, and the French in India were generally not a significant portion of the population. There were 9,950 French nationals residing in India in 2013. Nearly all are in the Union Territory of Puducherry in southeastern India (11,726 individuals in 1988), with much smaller numbers in

Karaikal Karaikal ( /kʌdɛkʌl/, french: Karikal /kaʁikal/) is a town of the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. Karaikal was sold to the French by the Rajah of Thanjavur and became a French Colony in 1739. The French held control, with occa ...

(695 individuals), Mahé (50), Yanam (46), and 342 elsewhere in India. They form a small minority, accounting for less than 3 percent of the present population of Puducherry.

Indian French

Indian French (french: français Indien) is a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

spoken by

ns from the former colonies of

French India French India, formally the ( en, French Settlements in India), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian Subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were '' ...

; namely

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 ...

(''Pondichéry''), Mahé, Yanam (''Yanaon''),

(''Karikal'') in the union territory of Puducherry (''Poudouchéry'') and the

Chandannagar Chandannagar french: Chandernagor ), also known by its former name Chandernagore and French name Chandernagor, is a city in the Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is headquarter of the Chandannagore subdivision and is ...

(''Chandernagor'') subdivision in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

. It has considerable influence from

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 ...

and the regional languages of India, such as the

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant im ...

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, na ...

(Pondicherry Tamil dialect),

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 ...

(Yanam Telugu dialect) 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 wa ...

(Mahé Malayalam dialect) and the

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

in Chandannagar. There are several varieties of Indian French, corresponding to the former French colonies, as follows: *Tamil people (nearly 60,000 in France, 10,000 people in Puducherry) *Telugu people (nearly 10,000 in France, 35,000 people in Yanam) *Malayali people (4000–5000 in France)

Examples of Indian French

Indian French spoken in former

vaguely varies from Standard French, in pronunciation and accent, with a few unique words, such as:

Current Status

Today, Pondicherry still has a community of French people living in the city and French is also an official language. There are 6,500 French people registered in South India, and of these about 5,500 are in Pondicherry. French companies in India are present in various sectors such as energy, IT, environment, automobiles, traditional manufacturing industries like St Gobain, and engineering. They also have exporters of fish and other seafood, textiles, leather and luxury goods. L’Oréal has a presence in India, and

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its produc ...

has taken a stake in Hidesign in Pondicherry. The French community in India is a consolidated group, brought together by a number of different organizations that aim to promote French culture in India. The French Club of Bombay is an organization that unites French speakers living in the city. The club meets at different locations in various parts of Mumbai so that meetings are conveniently located and have a good attendance. In February 2015, the Indo French Senior Citizens Association staged street protests in

to protest against denial of the French nationality and voting rights derived from the " treaty of cession" of French India territories, which guaranteed continued French citizenship to individuals whose birth and nativity certificate had been registered during the

regime.

Notable people

Abhishiktananda Abhishiktananda ( sa, अभिषिक्तानन्द, Abhiṣiktānanda; 30 August 1910, in Saint Briac, Brittany – 7 December 1973, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India), born Henri Le Saux, was a French monk who, having moved to In ...

(born Henri Le Saux) – French

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monk *

Mirra Alfassa Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17 November 1973), known to her followers as The Mother, was a spiritual guru, occultist and yoga teacher, and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and ...

– also known as "The Mother"; spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo *

Yvonne Artaud Yvonne Artaud (Lyon, 1924 - Pondicherry, 5 August 2009) was a French educator, ethnologist, psychologist and artist, and was the aide of the thinker and philosopher Medhananda. She was a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa. She became a ...

– French educator, ethnologist, psychologist and artist * Andre Beteille (born 1934) – Indian sociologist * Pierre Ceyrac – French Jesuit priest, engaged in charitable work *

Christabel Chamarette Christabel Marguerite Alain Chamarette, sometimes Christabel Bridge (born 1 May 1948) was a Greens Senator for Western Australia from 1992 to 1996. Personal life Born in Hyderabad, India in 1948, Chamarette is of Anglo-Indian and French Huguen ...

– Senator for Western Australia (born in India and is of French Huguenot descent) *

Alain Daniélou Alain Daniélou (4 October 1907 – 27 January 1994) was a French historian, Indologist, intellectual, musicologist, translator, writer, and notable Western convert to and expert on the Shaivite sect of Hinduism. In 1991 he was awarded the ...

– French historian, intellectual, musicologist and Indologist *

François Gautier François Gautier (born 1950) is a journalist based in India who served as the South Asian correspondent for multiple reputed French-language dailies. He advocates for an Indigenous Aryan narrative. He is also the founder of a private mus ...

– writer and journalist based in India *

Catherine Grand Catherine Noël Grand (née Worlée; 21 November 1762– 10 December 1834) was the daughter of a French colonial officer in Tranquebar, Danish India, who became the mistress and later the wife of French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand ...

– wife of

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (, ; 2 February 1754 – 17 May 1838), 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French clergyman, politician and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the ...

, the first

Prime Minister of France The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister i ...

* Maïna Kataki – founder of the charity Samarpan Ashram * Kalki Koechlin – Indian-born French actress * Jules Monchanin (known as Swami Paramarubyananda) – French Catholic priest, monk and hermit * Pavitra – early disciple of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother *

Satprem Satprem (30 October 1923 – 9 April 2007) was a French author and a disciple of Mirra Alfassa. Early life Satprem was born Bernard Enginger in Paris and had a seafaring childhood and youth in Brittany. During World War II he was a member of th ...

– author * Cyril Desbruslais - Jesuit priest, playwright and author. * Andreanne Nouyrigat - French actress

Bibliography

* David-Néel, Alexandra (2002). L' Inde où j'ai vécu: Avant et après l'indépendance. Paris: Plon. *Elfi, Nicole (2008). Aux sources de l'Inde: L'initiation à la connaissance. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. *Gautier, François (2005). La caravane intérieure: Récit. Paris: Les Belles lettres. *Gautier, François (2008) Les Français en Inde – Pondichéry, Chandernagor, Mahé, Yanaon, Karikal. France Loisirs. *Sethna, K. D. (1987). The obscure and the mysterious: A research in Mallarmé's symbolic poetry. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.

References

{{French diaspora Europeans in India

People from Puducherry