Mother's Chronicles - Book Six

19

Enter the French

During the Second World War, specially after the Normandy landing by the Allied forces, Saint-Malo was much in the news. I still remember the horror we felt when in August 1944 we heard from the BBC that before capitulating to the army of General Patton, the Germans had set fire to the city and destroyed almost three fourths of it.

But when our recital opens, it was a flourishing port on the estuary of the river Rance. It had become a part of France in 1491, and a hundred years later it had become fully integrated. The Malouins, as the inhabitants of St-Malo are called, were first-class navigators, and the ships they used were eminently sea-worthy. In fact, so renowned were they that the French kings recruited their best privateers at St.-Malo. That is how it came about that in 1616, two merchant ships, Saint-Michel and Saint-Louis set sail from St.-Malo harbour for the Far-East with an all-French crew. Reaching Ceylon (Sri Lanka) they separated. Saint-Michel continued her eastward journey, while Saint-Louis went exploring the Coromandel¹ coast. She visited Pondicherry, and Pentopoli

¹ Le Gentil tells us that 'Coromandel' is derived from 'Chola-mandalam,' (a Chola province), a word corrupted by the Portuguese who pronounced cho as ko.

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(Nizampatnam), up to Masulipatnam. The French sailors and merchants were charmed by the Indians they met and delighted at the reception they got. On their way back, Saint-Michel was scuttled by the Dutch. Saint-Louis reached safely the home harbour. Shortly afterwards the Malouin naval officers wrote down their experiences, as well as a set of recommendations for the furtherance of commerce between France and India. It was therefore when the Bourbon, Louis XIII (1601-43) was king of France—he became king at the age of nine—that the French went on an exploratory mission to the east coast of India.

So far we have barely mentioned France, which too was a great colonial power. It held vast territories in the African continent, the New World, the Far-East, and was looking at India: a rich new land of opportunities. All types of adventurers were attracted to this new El Dorado. The earlier ones were more concerned with promoting French commercial interests than conquest. To that end they tried to undermine the British influence, in particular among the Indian rulers. Letters from Lord Wellesley (Duke of Wellington, 1769-1852) plainly speak about the panic in British circles over the close ties of French generals with Indian rulers.

In the pursuit of commerce, the Dutch formed their Veveenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, the British their "East-India Company" which was incorporated in 1600, and the French formed the Royale Compagnie de France des Indes Orientates in 1664. The French Company was founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-83), a statesman under Louis XIV (1638-1715). Colbert it was who reformed French financial administration, developed industry, virtually founded the French Navy and,

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above all, founded the French Academies of Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts. The same year (1664) that Colbert set up the French Company, a group of merchants sent a 'Requeste' to Louis XIV. Referring to the earlier voyage of Saint-Louis in 1617, the merchants presented to the king a plan of action almost identical to that of the Malouins. Among which was the reflection: "... the liking of the Indians for the French temper and generosity, a liking so powerful and effective that whatever the other foreigners have exploited in that country by the force of arms, is easily done by the French by the force of the heart."

Underlining the facilities for commerce, the 'Requeste' went on to say: "The situation, government and habits of every place were observed: monarchy was found in almost every district, with so widespread a liking for the French temper that this little fleet and its emissaries were received everywhere with an open heart. The Nayaka of Pondicherry, located on the Coromandel coast, allowed [us] by treaty to build and maintain in his territory a fortress to ensure the safety of French trade, contenting himself with a moderate allowance, and this project would have been carried out had the Company continued its remittances."

And what was the commerce to consist of? Proffering an estimate for each future fleet, the merchants pleaded: "Part of these ships will reach the Coromandel coast to sell there yarn, lead, amber from Dunsvic, polished coral and other goods with great profit, and to trade as well with Pondicherry, Pentopoli and Masulipatnam for diamonds and rubies, the diamond mine being nearby and the ruby mine in Pegou, which is not far from it. The same ships will load, on the Coromandel coast,

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indigo, various kinds of local cloth, that one can easily get cheaply from the manufactures, money being rare and food at such a low price that two hundred and fifty reels [a Spanish monetary unit] a year are enough to feed ten men." Doesn't it sound fantastic? It was so dirt cheap to live in those days!

Like other West European nations—such as the Dutch, the Danes, the British—the French too began by setting up a trading centre at Surat (1666), on India's west coast. They got permit for trading during Aurangzeb's reign, who ruled a part of India from 1658 to 1707; exactly as the East India Company had got theirs when his grandfather Jehangir reigned. But all of them recognized the advantages of a foothold on the Coromandel coast. "The need for expansion of commerce pushed them [the Dutch] to get a footing in the Hindu territory further south," explains N. Shastri. From the eastern seaboard commerce with the Far-East would naturally become less time-consuming, not to speak of the advantages to be had by espying upon the rivals' shipping lines in the Bay of Bengal. The Dutch had established their factories in Nizampatnam and Masuli-patnam in 1605. Then they obtained permit to erect a factory at Pulicat with exclusive privileges of trade. The factory was in place by 1610. The Danes also made their presence felt; they settled at Tranquebar¹ in 1620. The English too were spreading their tentacles. They were allowed to trade in Pulicat in 1621 by a treaty with the Dutch, but ultimately moved their factory to Madras in 1639-40. By the time the French began to compete in earnest, the Dutch had already ousted the Portuguese from

¹ Then known as Tarankampadi, and today as Taragambadi.

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the Tamil country. Certainly, there were great commercial and political advantages to be had from a secure base on the Coromandel coast.

Francois Baron' was the Company's first Director General. In Francois Martin he found a devoted and intelligent assistant. When Baron died (14 May 1683) Martin stepped into his shoes. After several skirmishes with rivals—mainly the Dutch and the English—Martin opted to build his base at Pondicherry. Why Pondicherry? Its port, to put it in Martin's words "was the most advantageous post on the coast." A lot of evidence has been found to prove that at least up to 1675, the Gingee river flowed directly to the sea. But through natural causes, the river branched into two. From then on Pondicherry lost its old golden harbour.

Actually, it appears that the then king of Gingee, Muthu Krishnappa Naik (1595-1625), was the one who laid the beginnings of a European 'loge' at Pondicherry in 1618 by installing there a Dutchman, Simon Jeesten. That made it easier for the Danes and later for the French to build their loges, which were 'fifty steps' one from the other.

Commerce flourished. Among the trades, there was also the 'slave trade.' Not only in Pondicherry, but all over the world

' Francois Baron backed Martin to set up a 'loge' there. 'Log? 'in French meant the same as English 'factory' or the Dutch 'feitoria.' The word 'factory' was coined in 1582. It meant: an establishment for traders carrying on business in a foreign country.

Strangely, the last but one French Governor in India was his namesake, Francois Baron (died 26 March 1980). Satprem told me that it is quite likely that both the Barons were descended from an ancient family from Nantes in Western France.

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wherever the Europeans (and the Arabs) went. It is interesting to hear Sri Aurobindo. "In India the institution of slavery was practically absent and the woman had at first a freer and more dignified position than in Greece and Rome; but the slave was soon replaced by the proletariate, called in India the Shudra, and the increasing tendency to deny the highest benefits of the common life and culture to the Shudra and the woman brought down Indian society to the level of its Western congeners."

In the innumerable wars that the French and the British fought in Europe in the worst days of their rivalry to conquer the world for themselves, there were repercussions in their own hemisphere as well as in their overseas empires, including the Indian subcontinent. As soon as some sort of peace obtained in Europe among the warring nations, Martin breathed a sigh of relief. He was astute enough to procure a 'firman' (edict) from the Mahratta governor of the Deccan. Once officially established as the 'Director of the Coromandel coast, of Bengal and places in the South where the company will practise its commerce,' Martin set out to develop this small enclave into something else. He built a fort of brick and mortar some four hundred feet from the sea. In September 1699 the French entered into a treaty with the Dutch, and acquired the Fort, the town of Pondicherry, and the surrounding villages. And paid 16,000 Pagodas¹ for it all. Soon he obtained permission to mint money locally to pay wages to the workers, such as weavers, bead-makers, carpenters, and so forth.¹ Pondicherry was no

' The Dutch had bought Pondicherry from the local king Ram-Raja, for 'perpetuity' for the sum of 25,000 Pagodas.

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longer dependent on Surat.

Francois Martin gave assurance on behalf of France that it would respect the ways and customs of the people, and would not in any way interfere with their religious practices. That attracted the Hindus—weavers, dyers, artisans, merchants all flocked to the new, growing village, soon to become a town. Pondicherry became an important base for the French. Gradually they levied taxes, and introduced their own legal system to the territories they governed. The French king, Louis XIV constituted in 1702 a Sovereign Council (Conseil Souverain) at Pondicherry. The French Company had its Higher Council (Conseil Superieur) where all criminal cases were tried.

¹ When the Dutch were in Pondicherry and Nagapattinam, the money they minted was 'cache.'

The French had several types of coins: Royalin, Fanon, Pagode (or Pagoda). My sister Suprabha did a spot of researching, and gave me a few details. She found that a 'Royalin' coin dated 1723. was worth half a Fanon. A Mahe Fanon, in silver, was worth one-fifth of a rupee. The Pondicherry Fanon was minted both in bronze and silver. The Pagoda, a gold coin, was minted from 1715 onwards. The Pondicherry Pagoda bore a cross or a star on one face.

Centuries before the Europeans, the Cholas and Eastern Chalukyas of South India minted gold coins mainly of two denominations: varaha or pagoda and fanam, a tenth of varaha in weight and value.

The Fanon, worth half a rupee, was the most used currency. I think up until the end of French rule in 1954, it was in use. 'Pagode' too I have heard of. Not the Royalin. There were stamps of different denominations in Fanon.

And the Doudou. Twenty Doudous made one Fanon. These copper coins had a fleur-de-lis on one side, and "Puduchery" in Tamil on the other.

Though coins were used in commerce from ancient times, paper money came but recently to South Asia; a mere two or three centuries ago.

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Pondicherry became the capital of French establishment in India.

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It was the reaction of those early Frenchmen that aroused my interest. The gentle contact of the Indians found an echo in the hearts of the Celtic race.

A view of Pondicherry around 1790

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In those early days, when Indian history had not been perverted by the Christian clergy and British imperialists, those Frenchmen had no hesitation in airing their views. Some of them believed that the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, etc., had received their knowledge from India. "The ancients regarded Indians as the first inhabitants of the earth," wrote in 1782 P. Sonnerat, an expert in Natural History. "We know ... that all the peoples came to them to draw the elements of their knowledge, and that Pythagoras went from Greece to study under the Brahmins, looked upon as the most enlightened of men."

School children know Pythagoras of Samos (c. 569 B.C.) for his geometrical theorem. The Greek mathematician was also a great philosopher, whose doctrine included the immortality of the soul and its transmigration. He travelled much including to Egypt and Persia, but it is not certain that he came as far as India. What is certain, however, is that he was conversant with Vedic and Upanishadic thoughts. How? Well, because Indian sages had meetings with Greek philosophers at Athens! For, it is known that exponents of literature, science and philosophy travelled regularly between Greece and India.

Sonnerat, looking at the Indian with an unbiased eye, expressed in simple terms a profound truth. "The gentle and simple manners of Indians merit respect, but the more a people is happy the more its neighbours are envious, and cruelty, tyranny and ignorance will always keep away virtue and happiness." And he added, "A rich country, where everything seems to contribute to man's desire, is not long in becoming the bloody theatre of war."

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