Several European powers played an important role in the "amazing" transformation of India from the status of the coveted country to the category of the so-called "third world" or developing country. This was effected through the process of colonial or imperial interactions lasting for a couple of centuries. Countless adventurers, fortune-seekers and men of arms lost their life in their astute attempts to obtain a share of the golden goose of India, definitely not for the sake of civilising India or for sharing the burden of the country. The Portuguese who opened up India and the whole of East to the West European powers were followed by the Dutch, the English, the Danes, the Ostenders and the French. In the bid for building up an empire, the French faced the invincible power of the English and were tolerated to hold on to a couple of enclaves on the eastern and western coasts of India. The British who won in this race for empire building compelled to withdraw from the Indian subcontinent on the face of unarmed and non-violent opposition of the Indian nationalists. Yet, the Portuguese, the first to come to India, and the French, the last to reach the subcontinent continued to linger on in India even after the disappearance of other European powers. At last in the early sixties of the twentieth century they left India under different circumstances. The enlightened visionary in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, despite his genuine nationalist sentiments, resolved to keep a window open to the French and offered domicile in India to all those French nationals who wanted to stay here. Thus, at the moment there are over 8,000 French citizens in India enjoying the rare privilege of electing their representative for the democratic institutions in France and having their own cultural and academic institutions in India. This milieu of peculiar nature deserves special attention of the academicians and requires detailed study in the wake of nation-wide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Indian Independence.
Against this backdrop, an International Seminar was organised in the Department of History, Pondicherry University in 1997 covering different aspects of French contacts with India. The papers presented by the scholars from various parts of Europe and India are collected and edited in the present volume. |
