The Future of French India

Abstract

IN an address to the Indian parliament on February 11, 1949, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stated: believe that for a variety of reasons it is natural and proper that all foreign possessions in India should be united with India. We propose to give effect to this policy through friendly discussions with the powers con? cerned. This statement expressed the official attitude of the Indian government toward the small French and Portuguese possessions scattered over the territory of the newly independent nation. With the emergence of India as a sovereign state within the British Gommonwealth, many Indians had assumed that France would relinquish her possessions at an early date. Nevertheless she has been rather slow in approaching the problem.1 Under present conditions these possessions contribute little to the economic welfare of their mother country. Although Pondichery is located on the east coast, it is by no means an important economic outpost of India comparable to the British crown colony of Hongkong on the coast of China. The chief reason behind the efforts of France and Portugal to retain their set? tlements in India appears to be national prestige. The bulk of the population of the settlements, however, is Indian, and the magnet of an independent India is strong.