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Places
Pondicherry:
Forever France?
Madame Khantamma de Condappa
epitomizes the spirit of Pondicherry - feisty and elegant.
At 86, Madame is a storehouse of information, having been witness to the
ups and downs of French rule since the beginning of the century. Over 400
years of a colonial regime in Pondicherry has left a sizeable
brown-skinned French population in this 30-sq.km area on the coast of
southern India. Local Tamils in Pondicherry who opted for French
nationality when France relinquished its control in 1954 enjoy all the
rights extended to French citizens. They do not need a visa to visit
France, are entitled to a career in the French military and can even elect
their representative to the French Parliament.
French and Tamil are the only languages widely spoken. While some
understand English, not many can converse fluently in it. Madame Condappa
is one of the rare few. As she travels down memory lane, we get to know
how this diminutive woman acquired her facility for languages. "I went to
a royal school meant only for the children of the Maharaja of Mysore, his
close relatives and ministers," she says. "My mother's brother was a Diwan
and that's how I attended the school. All our teachers were from Europe.
Life was full of fun and we studied only for four hours a day," she
reminisces.
Madame Condappa came to Pondicherry in 1932, soon after her marriage to a
college principal, when the French were still in power. "The French were
forced to leave in 1954 by corrupt officials who later became prominent
politicians. The town was blockaded and nothing could reach us, not even
food," she says. Madame goes on, "Compared to British rule, the French had
high standards of governance. Things were cheap and there was no
corruption."
While the majority of young folk prefer to immigrate to France, the old do
not want to leave. With 6,000 French nationals, Pondicherry is, in some
ways, more French than France is now. Married women are invariably
addressed as Madame and men as Monsieur, while streets are called 'rue'.
Education is in consonance with the French curriculum. The red 'kepi'
(military cap) worn by the police has French antecedents. July 14, the
French national day, is celebrated with much pomp, accompanied by the
singing of Le Marseillaise, the French national anthem.
Creole foods, essentially rice and non-vegetarian Tamil preparations
combined with typical French restraint, are the mouth-watering gastronomic
legacies.
Mansions, still called by their French names, follow a distinct French
architecture. One of the oldest and best representatives is Hotel Lagrenee
de Meziere dating back to 1774. The other that has perhaps the finest
collection of colonial furniture and assiduously seeks to maintain its
character is unfortunately not accessible.
The owner of the house does not entertain visitors; journalists and
photographers are particularly discouraged. The owner fiercely guards her
privacy and says, "I did not even permit my brother who works for a French
TV channel to shoot in my house!" However, she agreed to show me her house
as I had a reference she trusted. But there was a caveat that she
shouldn't be identified, since she has had too many curious and
discourteous visitors. he story of her family dates back to the 1660s when
her great-great-grandfather from France married a lady from Madras
(Chennai). The present owner moved to Pondicherry when her husband, an
Irishman in the construction business, bought the mansion. A typical
French villa, the high boundary wall gives no idea of its rich interiors:
pillared verandas, high ceilings, louvered windows and huge rooms. "Ours
was the first French house in Pondicherry to have toilets," she says. The
French preferred moveable commodes instead.
Agreeing that life at present is tough, she is nonetheless critical of the
current trend of leaving the country. "It is sad that a number of
Pondicherian French are looking towards France for direction while our
future lies here in India."
This feeling is echoed by Sister Therese of the St. Joseph Cluny
Congregation. "The French of Pondicherry are a kind of nowhere people,
neither French nor Indian." Unlike the other two, Sister Therese is of
French origin and was born and brought up in France. She first came to
Pondicherry as a traveler in 1952 when she was 23. In 1968, 14 years after
the end of the colonial rule, she returned and settled down here to teach
needlework, cutting and embroidery to 60 poor women. Her congregation is
housed in Hotel Lagrenee de Meziere, which was donated to them 150 years
ago.
"She is doing remarkable work," says Francis Wacziarg, owner of Hotel de
l'Orient in Pondicherry. "Her embroidery is incomparable." Done entirely
by hand, it is a daily struggle to manage salaries for the women working
under her. "I want to prove to the 'foreigners' that we Indians are the
best and our hands can compete equally with the machines," she says as she
displays some samples. Cluny's Convent on Rue Romain Rolland can be
visited at fixed hours.
No story of the French women of Pondicherry can be complete without the
mention of two remarkable personalities, one modern and the other of the
late medieval period. 'The Mother', as Mirra Alfassa is reverentially
called, first heard of Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry in 1914. Seeking
spiritual guidance, she arrived here never to leave. Her legacy is
enduring - the township of Auroville about 20 km away in the state of
Tamil Nadu is a unique experiment in international community living.
The story of Aayi, a courtesan who lived almost 300 years ago, represents
the fusion of cultures. Aayi had razed her house to the ground to appease
a passing Pallava king and constructed a reservoir for drinking water. In
the early part of their rule, the French drew water from this tank 5 km
away to quench their thirst. Aayi Mandapam (temple) stands in the centre
of the town and is the only French monument in the memory of a local
courtesan. Napoleon III, then the Emperor of France, was so enamored by
this story that he ordered the construction of this structure.
Aayi perhaps best symbolizes Madame Pondicherry - an amalgam of orient and
occident, its confusion and coherence. As more and more young people
depart for France leaving behind their heritage, there is one silver
lining. Come July, Pondicherry is filled with young men and women: It is
holiday time in France, and also the time for wedding bells to ring.
Hopefully, the unique Franco-Tamil spirit of Pondicherry will live on.
– Anand Jha
November 10, 2002
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