Republican Citizenship in French Colonial Pondicherry, 1870-1914

250 Pages·2022·2.628 MB·English

by  Anne Raffin

Republican Citizenship in French Colonial Pondicherry, 1870–1914
Table of Contents
List of Diagrams, Graphs, Images, Maps, and Tables 7
Acknowledgements 9
1. Pondicherry in the French Empire during the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries 11
Between Colonial Subjects and French Citizens
I. Overview and General Concepts 11
II. Analytical Framework 17
2. Contextualizing Pondicherry within the French Empire and
the Indian Subcontinent 21
I. Pondicherry within the French Empire 21
II. Pondicherry within the Indian Subcontinent 27
III. Pondicherry during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth
Centuries 36
3. Inclusive and Exclusive Visions of Citizenship in French India 49
I. Colonial Pondicherry and Its Entanglement with Imperial
Citizenship 50
II. The Topas, the Renouncers, and the Catholics 70
III. Institutions 81
IV. Conclusion 92
4. Education and Army 99
Attempts to Institutionalize Republican Ideals in French India
I. The State of Education in Pondicherry before the Third
Republic 101
II. Education in Third Republic Pondicherry: A Secular Primary
Education for All 104
III. Civic Education and the Language Policies 109
IV. Hindrances to the Republican School Project: Race and
Caste 117
V. Hindrances to the Republican School Project: Gender Issues
and Budget Constraints 123
VI. The Armed Forces in Pondicherry 132
VII. Military Laws, Citizenship, and Indochina 139
VIII. Conclusion 145
5. The Art of Petitioning in a Colonial Setting 151
I. Law, Order, and a Bureaucracy of Petitions 155
II. A Deficient Electoral System 162
III. Attempts to Prevent Electoral Frauds and Appeals on the
Ground 168
IV. Partisan Political Fraud Under the Three-List System
(1884–1899) 175
V. Partisan Political Fraud under The Two-List System
(1900–1913) 180
VI. Conclusion 187
6. From Electoral Politics to Expansion of Rights and National
Independence 193
I. What Conclusions Can We Draw from Republican Citizen-
ship in Pondicherry? 193
II. How Far Was the Civilizing Mission Applied? 199
III. From Contestations to Nationalism and the Impact of British
India 203
IV. New Forms of Political Participation in a Comparative
Perspective 207
V. Situating Pondicherry within a Larger Theoretical Reflection
on the Relationship between Empire and Citizenship 216
Bibliography 233
Index 245
Asian History
The aim of the series is to offer a forum for writers of monographs and occasionally
anthologies on Asian history. The series focuses on cultural and historical studies
of politics and intellectual ideas and crosscuts the disciplines of history, political
science, sociology and cultural studies.
Series Editor
Hans Hågerdal, Linnaeus University, Sweden
Editorial Board
Roger Greatrex, Lund University
David Henley, Leiden University
Ariel Lopez, University of the Philippines
Angela Schottenhammer, University of Salzburg
Deborah Sutton, Lancaster University
Republican Citizenship in French
Colonial Pondicherry, 1870–1914
Anne Raffin
Amsterdam University Press
The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the National University of
Singapore.
Cover illustration: Extrait de L’Atlas de Vuillemin de 1851
Reproduction © Norbert Pousseur
Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden
Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout
isbn 978 94 6372 355 8
e-isbn 978 90 4855 355 6 (pdf)
doi 10.5117/9789463723558
nur 691
© Anne Raffin / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2022
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations
reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is
advised to contact the publisher.
List of Diagrams, Graphs, Images,
Maps, and Tables
Diagrams
Diagram 5.1 Three lists divided from 1890 to 1899 (end of the
renouncer list) 178
Graphs
Graph 2.1 Population changes in the urban and suburban areas
of Pondicherry 37
Graph 3.1 The Acts of Renunciations registered in the City Hall
of Pondicherry (1882–1962) 80
Images
Image 1.1 Polling station Alacoupan, Pondicherry 1891 12
Image 1.2 Arrival at Pondicherry in the late nineteenth or early
twentieth century 13
Maps
Map 2.1 Former French India 36
Map 2.2 The region of Pondicherry 38
Map 2.3 Pondicherry in 1693 42
Map 2.4 Pondicherry in 1693 42
Map 2.4 Pondicherry in 1693 43
Tables
Table 3.1 Colonial state structure 68
Table 4.1 Female Tamil teachers 128

Acknowledgements
I would like first to thank the National University of Singapore for the
research grants that I was awarded. Without this generous financial support,
this research would not have been possible.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the staff of the Record Centre
of Pondicherry, Jeewanandapuram, Lawspet, who tried to help me as much
as they could with my research and made my time at this archival centre a
pleasant one. I also wish to thank the librarians at the French Institute of
Pondicherry, who always assisted me with professionalism.
Social scientists who have contributed to the shaping of this project
include Kankana Mukhopadhyay, Manjusha Nair, Dennis Smith and social
scientists at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Various
individuals who commented on this work during presentations at several
conferences and seminars were also helpful. Darinee Alagirisamy’s com-
ments were very helpful due to her knowledge of Tamil social history. Finally,
my good colleague Ho Ko Chong gave me valuable tips regarding publishing
strategies.
A special thanks to Frederick Cooper who read and commented on the
entire manuscript as well as Kay Mohlman who was especially generous
with her time and insightful comments. I am also thankful to the two
anonymous referees for their constructive comments, and to Susan Lopez
Nerney and Paul Nerney for their editing skills.
Finally, one person in particular merits special mention, my daughter
Lucie. She had to endure her mother’s research trips away from home and
rightfully complained that one’s child is more important than any book. It
is to her, with the utmost love, that I dedicate this book.