Region of
Pondicherry : South India
Significance : A Union
Territory
Popularly
Known As : Pondy
Main
Attractions : Aurobindo
Ashram, Auroville |
Tourism in
Pondicherry
Many feel that it has a distinct spiritual
vibration. Stories of resident sages come
down through its history from the earliest
days.
Many like its compact yet cosmopolitan
setting. Pondicherry means "New Town" in
Tamil. It has survived by and through
change, and is as complex and interesting as
much larger places. Others appreciate the
range of activities and facilities for
visitors of various interests and economic
means.
The nickname "Pondy" sums up this shared
feeling of belonging, of having come home.
Moreover, Pondicherry is that increasingly
rare travel destination: open, comfortable,
spontaneous and varied.
The Openness -
Pondicherry
Pondy is open in three senses. A lot of the
activities of its people take place in
public so the visitor can partake without
intruding. Secondly, Pondy is used to a
variety of non-native residents and
visitors. Visitors are not a "tourist
attraction" for local people. Finally,
crime-involving visitors is very small even
by Indian standards, which are good.
Comfy In Everyway
Pondy is comfortable. It has as wide a
choice of places to stay and eat as a major
city without any of the high urban costs and
luxury taxes that make hotels and
restaurants in Madras, for example, nearby
twice as dear as similar facilities in Pondy.
And the shopping is good in Pondy - many
stores and boutiques to choose from, with no
tax or low tax.
A Varied Heritage
of Pondicherry
Pondy has variety and spontaneity. Pondy is
famous for its French an Ashram
characteristics. And it is true that
Pondicherry was the capital of French India
and that the Sri Aurobindo Ashram is one of
the best known in India. But both are
essentially private worlds consisting of
families, devotees and officials who live
and work behind walls surrounding cool
courtyards. These can be glimpsed through
occasionally opened gates, from the heritage
hotels and terraced restaurants in the area,
and on heritage walks.
The Pondy Experience is such that captivates
all kinds of visitors: tourists, seekers,
refugees from metropolitan stress, and the
families of visiting business people and
conventioneers who can sightsee and shop
when they want a diversion.
The French
Influence in Pondicherry
Dumas and Romain roll, and streets were
Pondicherry's first and still among the most
beautiful attractions.
This district retains much of the French
ambience from the late 18th to the early
20th centuries. Only traces of the earliest
European quarter of Pondicherry survived the
destruction by the British in 1761.
A Dutch
Establishment
Most interest in Pondy's history centres on
the 18th century - the high point of French
achievement under Governor Duplex. But Pondy
has a lot more certifiable history than
that. Indeed, the French and British were
latecomers: the Dutch and the Danes had
established a presence in Pondy before the
first French settlement in 1674. And the
Dutch retook the city for seven years until
1700.
Nonetheless, the razing of Pondicherry was
the culmination of a series of skirmishes,
sieges and occupations between the French
and British for control of the trade of
South India. Between 1700 and 1818 the
British occupied Pondy three times for a
total of 34 years. It wasn't all one-sided,
of course. The French took Madras and Fort
St. Davids in this seesaw series of wars and
peaces, conducted from Europe and fought in
India with local rulers playing an important
role.
The Alliance
Francaise - A French Specimen
Most of the buildings reflecting French
influence are private homes or institutions.
One that is not and that serves as the
information centre for "French Pondicherry"
is the Alliance Francaise. The Alliance
Francaise is open to the public (8.30
am-12.30 am and 4.00 pm-7.00 pm Monday to
Friday, 8.30 am - noon on Saturday) and
speaks English as well as French. The
Alliance offers a temporary membership,
which allows the borrowing of French books
from its library, as well as the viewing of
library, as well as the viewing of
English-subtitled films, French bookshop
next door.
The fact that Pondy was French for most of
three centuries is recalled in old street
signs and red 'Kepi' hats worn by the
police. Yet, the French heritage is most
pronounced in buildings and monuments in
tones of cream and yellow set out on a grid
of more or less straight streets that is
unusual in India. These buildings are
concentrated in the oldest French quarter
and other parts of Pondy, including Mission
Street with its charming 18th century
Cathedral.
French architectural features include - the
Gateway situated at the corner of Caserne
and Suffren streets, the statues of Dupleix
and Saint Joan Of Arc, and the French War
Memorial- all along Beach Road.
PONDICHERRY & INDO
CHINA
In the late 18th century a French Jesuit
missionary, the Bishop of Adam ("Pigneau de
Behaine") was active in the region. In 1771
he constructed at Arikamedu near Pondy, a
seminary for features for Jesuits expelled
from Thailand, using brick from former
settlements there dating back to Chola and
Roman times.
The Bishop later befriended a Vietnamese
prince, survivor of the traditional ruling
clan defeated in a long rebellion that began
in 1771. The Bishop took the prince's
four-year-old son to France where the exotic
entourage created a sensation. The French
King, Louis XVI, authorized a military
expedition but later changed his mind.
The determined Bishop convinced French
merchants in India to buy two ships,
weapons, supplies and 400 irregular troops.
In 1789 he sailed from Pondicherry for
IndoChina where his troops trained royalist
forces who gradually repelled the rebels
until the prince was able to proclaim
himself the emperor of a united Vietnam,
establishing the Nguyen Dynasty based in
Hue. This dynasty, Vietnam's last, came
increasingly under French influence until it
fell with the French regime in 1954. The
last Nguyen emperor died in exile in France.
For 150 years Pondicherians played an
economic and military role in French
Indochina. At present, fewer vestiges of
this connection remain in shop and
restaurant signs. Today's Pondicherry is
beginning to rediscover this important
connection with the Hindu, Buddhist and
Confucian cultures of IndoChina.
Nearby Cities
Chennai (165 km)
Thanjavur (170 km)
Bangalore (296 km)
|
French
Español
Italiano
Deutsch
Português
India
Travel Guide / States / Pondicherry Travel Guide
