The Historical Society of Pondicherry is a Hundred Years Old
| 12 September 2011
1. Chronicles
When Alfred MARTINEAU was named Governor of Pondicherry, in 1911, a new era dawned in the realm of thought, and brought about a fresh awareness of the town’s glorious history. Up until that time, little of note had been done in that direction in Pondicherry, except perhaps for the records collected by Montbrun, the mayor of Pondicherry, Laude, the magistrate, and above all Vinson who in 1889 had brought out a beautiful work on Pondicherry entitled ‘The French in India’. But all these archival papers lay in a pile at the bottom of cupboards.
It was with the aim of bringing together all these records that Governor Martineau in May 1911 founded La Société d’Histoire de l’Inde Française (‘The Historical Society of French India’).
Several personages were among the early members—Gaston de la Barre de Nanteuil, Henri Goebelé, Edmond Gaudart, Jouveau Dubreuil, and Gnanou Diagou were some of them. Then began the task of classifying the archives. Martineau brought out in succession a number of documents—‘Letters Exchanged between the Supreme Council [in Pondicherry] with the Supreme Council in Chandernagor’ and ‘Letters Exchanged between the Supreme Council in Pondicherry and the Company’. He was nominated a member of the University of Madras on 22 November 1917. On that occasion, Martineau had read out an important discourse on the history of the Great Peninsula. Martineau was named a professor at the Collège de France in 1921. At the same time, he began working on La Revue des Colonies Françaises (‘Review of French India’ ). Finally there appeared his magnum opus, Dupleix et l’Inde Française (‘Dupleix and French India’ on which he had started work in 1911. This was followed by Les derniers jours de Dupleix (‘The Last Days of Dupleix’), and later by Le Journal de Bussy (‘Bussy’s Diaries’). We owe to him above all Les Mémoires de François Martin (‘The Memoirs of
François Martin’), unknown until that time, and discovered by him among the papers stored at the National Archives in Paris. While at the Collège de France, he continued to send aricles to the Revue de la Société de l’Inde Française, which he had founded, highlighting them in L’histoire des Colonies Françaises. He died in January 1945, the same year as Governor Bonvin. Three others left their mark on the Société d’Histoire de l’Inde Française. They were Edmond Gaudart,
Jouveau Dubreuil, and Yvonne Goebelé. Following the absorption of French India into the Indian Union, the Société d’Histoire de l’Inde Française became La Société d’Histoire de Pondichéry.
2. The Documents
The Society published La Revue Historique (‘The Historical Review’) and Les Ouvrages (‘The Works’). We congratulate Dr Nallam, the current President of the Society, on successfully retrieving from everywhere most of the Society’s documents and collecting them into a library on the third floor of his clinic. I have spent some time going through all the issues of the Revues Historiques and making a note of the most interesting articles in them. It must be pointed out that the Institut Français de Pondichéry (the French Institute of Pondicherry) possesses a complete collection of these issues in digital format.
A. La Revue Historique
The first issue of 1916, with a scholarly article by Jouveau Dubreuil on the Pallavas.
Volume 2 of 1918 is particularly interesting because of the ‘Will of François Martin’ and ‘The Tomb of Bussy’ by Martineau.
The 390-page Volume 3 (1919) has the complete History of the [French East India] Company and the registers of the Church in Chandernagor from 1690 to 1800.
Volume 4 (1920) has ‘Gingi’ by Charles Gravelle and the registers of the Church in Chandernagor from 1818 to 1900.Volume 6(1937) carries articles by Y. Goebelé on the family of Ananda Rangapoullé, and, adding particular appeal, a previously unpublished series of very interesting articles by Jouveau Dubreuil on Pondicherry.
Then came the war. Around that time, there appeared a rare document published by the Society, L’Inde Française dans la Guerre (‘French India in the War’), with this phrase from Charles de Gaulle : ‘It was the French establishment in India … that was among the first to rally behind Free France.’
There were in that issue several articles dealing with trade matters, and also French Missionaries in India by Mgr Colas, Finance and the Economy in French India during the War by Paul Villaume, Views of Pondicherry by Albert Brissaud,The Hindus,The Movement of General De Gaulle, by Joseph David, The Free French Forces, French Red Cross, etc.
Volume 7 in 1948 carried Y. R. Goebelé celebrated article, ‘The Beaches of Coromandel in the Salons of the Empire’, and a chronology of the Pallavas by G. Monod Herzen.
Volume 8 appeared in 1952, the last issue of La Revue Historique de l’Inde Française. La Revue Historique de l’État de Pondichéry (‘The Historical Review of the State of Pondicherry’)--note the incorrect term État (‘State’). Y. Goebelé published two articles, ‘Enfance et Adolescence de Ananda Rangapoullé’ (‘The Childhood and Adolescence of Ananda Rangapoullé’) and ‘Deux grands poètes de Pondichéry au 19e siècle’ (‘Two Great Poets of 19th-Century Pondicherry’). But it is the article by Louis Charolais that caught our attention, ‘Pondichéry, il y a 100 ans’ (‘Pondicherry a Hundred Years Ago’), because it depicted the splendour of life at Oussoudou
(Ouchtéry) at weekends. It had inspired Dominique Marny’s novel, Du Côté de Pondichéry.
Present-day Pondicherriansmay fin dit hard to imagine the importance that Oussoudou enjoyed in those times. There followed several previously unpublished articles of Jouveau Dubreuil.
However, for reasons that are not clear to us, the Revue suspended publication shortly afterwards, and only returned to circulation with Issue Number 10 in 1972 with a great piece by Jean Luc Racine, ‘Esquisse d’une histoire commerciale de Pondichéry jusqu’en 1954’ (‘An Outline of the Commercial History of Pondicherry up to 1954’).
Volume 11 appeared in 1973 with a number of articles, some of them in English. Racine’s ‘Les Origines de la Présence française en Inde, d’après les Mémoires de Bellanger de Lespinay’, Jouveau Dubreuil’s ‘L’influence de l’Inde du Sud sur l’Arabie Islamique’, and, in English, E. Divien’s article and another by Cyril Anthony were among those printed.
Volume 13 was dedicated to the memory of Maître Gnanou Diagou.
Volume 14 (1981-1986) was published in honour of Maître Cojandè Dairianadin.
The periodicity of the publication began to be nearly regular beginning with Volume 15 published in 1987 as an annual volume. All the articles were printed in English, and this practice continued up until Volume 18 in 1995, in which appeared J. Weber’s article on the port and the sea trade that passed through it in the 18th century, and P. Haudrère’s ‘La Compagnie Française des Indes’ (‘The French [East India] Company’).
A special issue was dedicated in 2004 to 50th anniversary of the de facto accession of Pondicherry to India, and contained profiles of all the relevant treaties and agreements.
The Review has since become trilingual (French, English, and Tamil), the last issue being the one of 2009. We wish it a long life.
B. The Works
Our list of 44 works is available for your use. Note that all the books are in French. The following four authors have produced
the majority of the published work : H. de Closets d’Errey, E. Gaudart, A. Martineau, and Y. R. Goebelé. Some of their works available at the Library are the following :
Correspondance du Conseil Supérieur de Pondichéry et de la Compagnie : 6 tomes (de 1726 à (de 1726 à 1767) par M. A. Martineau.(‘Correspondence between the Supreme Council of Pondicherry and the Company’ : 6 volumes (1726 to 1767) by A. Martineau)
Catalogue des Manuscrits des Anciennes archives de l’Inde Française :8 tomes (1690 à 1954)
(‘Catalogue of Manuscripts of Ancient Archives of French India’: 8 volumes (1690-1954)) by E. Gaudart)
Les Pallavas : M.G.Jouveau-Dubreuil ; (‘The Pallavas’, by G. Jouveau Dubreuil)
La Révolution et les Etablissements Français dans l’Inde de Mme V. Labernadie, 344pp (‘The Revolution and the French Establishments in India’, by V. Labernadie, 344 pp)
Le Vieux Pondichéry de Mme V. Labernadie, 448pp, ouvrage couronné par l’Académie (‘Old Pondicherry’ by V. Labernadie, 448 pp, winner of an award of the Académie
Créole et Grande Dame (Johanna Begum, marquise Dupleix), par Mme Y. R. Goebelé ouvrage couronné par l’Académie Française (‘Creole and Grand Lady (Johanna Begum, Marquise Dupleix)’, by Y. R. Goebelé, winner of an award of the Académie Française
Journal de Bussy, Commandant général des forces de terre et de mer dans l’Inde du 13 Novembre 1781 au 31 Mars 1783, par M. A. Martineau (‘Diary of Bussy, General Commanding the Land Forces and the Naval Forces in India from 13 November 1781 to 31 March 1783’, by A. Martineau)
Les Archives de Madras et l’Histoire de l’Inde Française, (période de François Martin) par M. E. Gaudart (‘The Archives of Madras and History of French India (Period of François Martin)’, by E. Gaudart)
Arrêts du Conseil Supérieur de Pondichéry, analysés par Me Gnanou Diagou : 8 tomes. (‘Decisions of the Supreme Council of Pondicherry, analysed by Maître Gnanou Diagou: 8 volumes’)
La criminalité dans les Comptoirs français dans l’Inde, par M. E. Gaudart
(‘Crime in the French Trading Establishments in India’, by E. Gaudart)
Robert Surcouf, par M. E. Gaudart
Histoire de l’Inde Française (1664-1874),Histoires religieuses et artisanales,son folklore, par H. de Closets d’Errey (‘History of French India (1664-1814): Religious Institutions and Crafts of India, and her Folklore’, by H. de Closets d’Errey)
Le Général de Lally, par Me Gnanou Diagou (‘General de Lally’, by Maître Gnanou Diagou)
Les Fouilles d’Arikamédou, par P. Z. Pattabiraman (‘The Excavations of Arikamedu’, by P. Z. Pattabiraman)
‘Bibliographie des Français dans l’Inde, établie par Emmanuel Divien et Henri Scholberg’ is a title that deserves to be added to the above list.
Copies of the lasts La Revue Historique and Bibliographie des Français dans L’Inde will be made available to interested readers.