Decolonization: French India

1 France’s territories in India consisted of five main settlements, sometimes referred to as ‘ établissements ’ or ‘ comptoirs ’ (Pondicherry, Karikal, Yanaon, Chandernagore and Mahé); a number of ‘loges’ (parcels of land that were the sites of French factories or trading posts); and the four small, uninhabited Iskitippah Islands, which had formed by accretion in the 19 th century in the boundary river between Yanaon and the Madras Presidency. 2 The territories passed from French to Indian control in a series of events between 1947 and 1954. The events in question...