Arrested Development

The French presence in India between 1667 and 1954 was first marked by coexistence with the British and then, post-1763, by a vain struggle against their dominance, pursued across the Deccan Peninsula, first through military means (up to the recall to France of Suffren in 1783) and then with representational ones that aimed to revise and reverse for the French the results of military conflict. The 1814 treaty left France with five isolated and demilitarized trading posts and established its role as minor colonizer. Henceforth, French representations of India became increasingly articulated via nostalgia, utopia, fantasy and other ‘discourses of the non-real.’ When studied from a postcolonial perspective, the continued French presence in India from 1814 to 1954 (and French influence beyond that date) helps to create a more complete picture of the region. French-language representations of India offer an invaluable third perspective on colonial crises (such at 1857–9), decolonization and the economic development of post-colonial India.