Pondicherry: Past and Present

Part of ’Architectural and Religious Heritage of South India’ project

Objectives

The aim of this project is to offer to Indian and French friends, at the same time, an introduction to the history of Pondicherry, an inventory of monuments and a town guide.

In the first part, is shown Pondicherry from the origins to 1824: a modest textile centre which became, for a short period, the capital of a potential empire, before being destroyed by the British. This development is illustrated with the magnificent watercolour plans and maps preserved in French archives.

In the second part, is presented Pondicherry from 1824 to the present day: a small colonial settlement now merged in the Indian Union. This section, illustrated with numerous photographs, old and new, shows the different aspects of the town, its streets, public buildings, private houses, and also the daily life of the people.

Key words: Colonial settlement, Architectural Landmarks, Streetscapes, Domestic Architecture, Daily life, Commercial Activities, Festivities, Ceremonies.

Partners

• Ecole française d’Extrême Orient, centre of Pondicherry

Funding

• French Institute of Pondicherry
• Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient

Team

• Dr. Jean Deloche, Head of the Projet (École française d’Extrême-Orient)
• Dr. N. Murugesan, Project Associate (French Institute of Pondicherry)
• K. Ramesh Kumar, Photography and Image Processing (French Institute of Pondicherry).
• Team from the Geomatics Laboratory

Main Outputs

CD ROM

• Pondicherry past and present. Pondichéry hier et aujourd’hui.

Jean Deloche, IFP/EFEO, Collection Indologie nº 107, 2007 [CD-ROM].
Language: English, French. 300 Rs (11 €)

In this bilingual (French/English) CD-ROM, we first show Pondicherry from its origins to 1824, the dazzling expansion of this modest textile centre which became, for a short period, the capital of a potential empire in the first half of the 18th century; then, we dwell on its slow death after its destruction by the British in 1761. This development is illustrated with the magnificent watercolour plans and maps preserved in French archives.

Next, we present Pondicherry from 1824 to the present day, a small colonial settlement now merged in the Indian Union; we point out the difficult stages of its rebirth, then, its slow expansion before becoming an Indian territory. This part is illustrated with old postcards and a mixture of recent and archival photographs.

Keywords: India, Pondicherry, urbanisation, colonial heritage

Books

• Le vieux Pondichéry (1673-1824) revisité d’après les plans anciens

Edited by Jean Deloche, Collection Indologie n° 99, IFP/EFEO, 2005, viii, 160 p.
Language: French. 400 Rs (14 €)

The discovery of new cartographic material relating to the origins of the urban development and social structure of Pondicherry at crucial moments of its history considerably modifies our representation of the town.

On the basis of all the documentation that is currently available in Archives in France and in the Netherlands, the author shows us how, from a simple town of craftsmen, this settlement became a metropolis structured according to a rigorous urban plan. He also shows us how the defense system of the place developed from a modest rectangular fort built by François Martin to the Fort Louis and the large outer fortification at the time of Dupleix, until its final decay at the end of the 18th century. We are thus able to see, beneath the surface, the many layers of Pondicherry’s past.

Keywords: India, Pondicherry, urbanisation, fortification

• Origins of the urban development of Pondicherry according to seventeenth century Dutch plans

Jean Deloche, 2004, 57 p., ill. (IFP – Publications Hors série n°3)
Language: English. 300 Rs (11 €)

The modern plan of Pondicherry shows a large town in gridiron plan which obviously was extended to its present form through controlled urban development. French historians feel that the plan should be considered as an achievement of “the French mind”. But the plans of 1693 show that, in François Martin’s settlement, the streets or lanes were following an irregular pattern, without any shape or symmetry, whereas, in the plans drafted in 1694, during the Dutch occupation, one finds the design of a large new town, with a very regular geometric layout, rectangular blocks of houses, separated by straight streets, intersecting at right angles. This great urban project of the Dutch company was adopted by the French who systematically carried out the extensive straightening out of streets into a planned grid, during the first half of the 18th century.

Keywords: Pondicherry, urbanism, Dutch

• Statistiques de Pondichéry (1822-1824) par A. Bédier et J. Cordier, IFP, Pondichéry, 1988, 398 pp.
• Historique et Statistique de Karikal (1825) par J. Cordier, vol. II, IFP, Pondichéry, 1989, 428 pp (vol. I, presentation by F. Gros. Pondichéry, 1971);
• Statistiques de Chandernagor (1823, 1827, 1838) par J. Cordier et A. Bédier, IFP, Pondichéry, 1990, 271 pp.
• Le plan terrier de la ville blanche de Pondichéry, 1777, présentation, analyse du document et établissement du plan parcellaire, I.F.P., Pondichéry, 2002, 175 p.

Articles

• DELOCHE J., 2007. Old Pondicherry : New Evidence and New Interpretations, Revue historique de Pondichéry, vol. XXII, 2007.

Exhibition
9 panels entitled Old Pondicherry revisited (lien avec la page “Exhibition” correspondante) giving a comprehensive picture of the Urban Development of Pondicherry from 1673 to 1824.