Short Essay on Establishment of French Settlements in South India

The French set up their first ‘loge’ in India in Surat, after Bebber had obtained a Fireman from Aurangazeb in 1666 and later de la Faye and Caron, the French Counsellors at Surat procured another Fireman from him in 1669 which granted permission for them to establish a ‘loge’ at Masulipatam. During 1670 a post was opened at Rajapur on the North Konkan Coast and the French also succeeded in securing permission from the Raja of Chirakkal to open trading posts in Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast.

Very soon the French were invited by Sher Khan Lodi, the Bijapur Commandant of Valikondapuram, to open trading centre in Puduchery. It seems that Sher Khan Lodi’s concern in this case was to help the textile trade in this area of providing competitors to the Dutch who had settled in Porto Novo and Cuddalore.

Bellanger arrived in Pondicherry on 4th February 1673 to establish a French loge there; long after he left the place putting Francoise Martin in charge. This decision to occupy Poundicherry was taken when the French at San Thome were besieged by the Sultan of Golconda; after its surrender they concentrated their attention on this new settlement.

It was the time when Shivaji invaded Carnatic and captured Ginji. In the battle of Tiruvadi he defeated Sher Khan Lodi. At the instance of Shivaji Martin remained neutral and got benefited with a Fireman granted by the Marathas, which greatly enhanced the trading privileges of The French in India.

It virtually conferred on them the monopoly of trade in Pondicherry; it was explicitly stated that although ships of other nations could call at Poundicherry, they could not engage in commercial transactions without the consent of the French; the Company’s servants, both French and Indian were to be tried only by the Company’s courts and law. To crown all these, by another clause the French Company was granted extraterritorial rights on the Indian soil.

In 1690, Deslandes was dispatched to Chandernagore by Martin and the place was subsequently developed into a French outpost. In 1701, Chandernagore, with other French possessions of the Indies, was placed under the authority of the Governor of Pondicherry.

Later under Dupleix, the settlement of Chandernagore prospered well; trading facilities were improved and the place was developed into a shipbuilding centre. Karikal was also occupied by Martin between December 1689 and June 1690 but later there was a setback for a withdrawal of the French.

Pondicherry was the most important French settlement in India and perhaps also the most significant and crowning achievement of Martin. It has been depicted as showing the “heights reached by European diplomacy in the entire record dealing with the European occupation of India.” But in fact it was the eagerness of Sher Khan Lodi to improve the economy of his province through foreign trade that enabled the French to acquire Pondicherry. It was also because Shivaji wanted to keep the French out of the politics of Ginji that he permitted them special privileges in Pondicherry.

A great hurdle arose in 1693, when war broke out between France and Holland. Alarmed by the growing prosperity of Poundicherry, the Dutch tried to nip it in the bud. They captured Pondicherry and Martin himself was taken prisoner. Pondicherry remained under the Dutch until 1699, when it was restored to the French according to the treaty of Ryswick in 1697.

By 1710, i.e., within less than three years after the reoccupation of Pondicherry the French thought it prudent to abandon the factory at Surat as the trade at that place grew unprofitable and also difficult to carry on. But prior to that, measures had been taken to transfer the ‘Superior Council of the Indies’ from Surat to Pondicherry.

And this place was raised as the seat of the Director or Governor-General with supreme authority over the French factories in all parts of India. Almost immediately afterwards, Martin was ap­pointed the President of the Superior Council and Director-General of French affairs in India.

On the Malabar Coast, a loge was set up in Calicut in 1701 and two years later in 1703m Kalapat (North of Pondicherry) was given to Martin by Nawab Davood Khan, the Governor of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in the Carnatic. Again, three years later he obtained as a donation from the Nawab, Oulgarai, Murungapakkam Olandai, Pakkamodiampet and Kalatikupan, Martin constructed a great fort called Fort St. Louis, following the plan of the famous Vauban for the Tournai fort.

In 1715, the French occupied the important island of Mauritius (abandoned by the Dutch) and were steadily taking up their ground along with the English, on the south eastern and Coromandel coast of India, where Pondicherry was developing into a fine town.

Benoist Dumas, who assumed the office of the Governor in September 1735, succeeded in obtaining a “paravana” from Dost Ali Khan, which granted permission to the Company to mint silver coins at Pondicherry (Earlier Francois Martin had set up a small mint in Pondicherry which minted copper coins) which were to be exact replicas of the Arcot rupee.

In 1739 Dumas, with the aid of Chanda Sahib took possession of Karikal. Together with some villages Karikal had already been promised to the French in return for a promise of material help in the recovery of Tanjore by Sahooji.

But later the rejection of French help and the failure of Sahooji to carry out his promise had tempted Chanda Sahib to made the cession and thus utilise the opportunity gainfully for wining over the irritated French. When Pratap Singh became the ruler of Tanjore, he confirmed the cession of Karikal and even recommends the fortification of Karikal to convert it into a military base.

The French also kept up relations with Martanda Varma, the ruler of Travancore. While the Dutch and the English had their settlements in Travancore, the French had nothing to parallel them. So they tried relentlessly to gain a foot-hold there-a settlement preferably at Colachel, a small coastal town 19 miles north-west of Cape Comorin.

Invitations from the Raja of Travancore to settle at Colachel in return for French aid against the English were also received occasionally; but when it became evident that the Raja’s main interest was to involve the French in water against the Dutch, the French became hesitant. Hence, between the English and the French Martanda Varma chose the former as his ally against the Dutch. Consequently the French accomplished practically nothing in Travancore.

In the first week of September 1740, as a reward for giving asylum to the fugitives including the members of the Royal family of Arcot, consequent on a Maratha attack on Tanjore, Chanda Sahib and Safdar Ali on a visit to Pondicherry gifted the villages of Archipakam, Teduvanatam and Valdavur to the French.

Another Forman was received by Dumas during the closing months of his governorship, in recognition of his achievements in dealing with the Marathas. This Fireman confirmed the grant of villages, made by Safda Ali and conferred, besides, upon Dumas, the title of “Nawab and Mansabdar of 4500 cavalry”.

On 14th January, 1742, Joseph Francois Dupleix assumed office as the President of the Council Superior and Governor of French India. It was at this time that the dispute over the succession to the throne of Arcot came up in the open.

Nizam-ul-Mulk appointed one of his nobles Anwaruddin, as Nawab of Arcot when Safdar Ali died and his minor son was murdered; but Dupleix while openly professing his friendship to Anwaruddin, was secretly intriguing with Chanda Sahib, claimant to this throne who was during this period a prisoner of the Marathas.

Beginning from about the second-half of 1740, for over a decade Pondicherry played the role of a diplomatic capital for the dramatic contest staged between the two great rival commercial powers in India, the English and the French. After 1742, political motives began to overshadow the desire for commercial gain.

The French wanted to rid the English, their chief national rival, off the India seas and monopolise the Indian trade; Dupleix, Moreover cherished the ambition of building up a French Empire in India through conquest. The struggle, punctuated with intervals, lasted for a long period and it ultimately ended proclaiming that the English and not the French were to be the masters in India.