Chandernagor

Caught in the action of "Cranford", the return of the long lost brother from India brought back to mind names that had fascinated me as a school-boy in his early teens, back in the days when France was still a Colonial Power. Yanaon, Pondichery, Chandernagor, Karikal and Mahe. The names of the five cities and trading posts we had, around the Indian continent. We had acquired them in the 18th. Century, lost them to the English and the Dutch and got them back for good early in the 19th. Century. We held them till India Independence when we returned them in 1952 or 1954. For some reason, the name Chandernagor had stayed with me. Chandernagor, Chandernagor, Shand-Air-Nah-Gore.

Ten or fifteen years ago, I stumbled on an article in "Geographic Magazine" about those five cities.Their official buildings would not have been out of place in any French city in France proper. Their street signs were in the local language and French. The amusing thing I remember from the article is that at Independence time, the inhabitants were given the choice of citizenship: they could remain French or they could become Indian. Apparently, a sizable number decided to remain French and retain the social benefits, pensions and other advantages of any other French citizen, creating a new class of prosperous middle-class people whose sons and daughters immediately became extremely attractive to the less fortunate Indian members of the opposite sex.