Seeing Pondicherry today, one forgets that this city used to be a sleepy colonial settlement on the Bay of Bengal, the colonial town par excellence. For decades, nothing apparently happened. August 1947 saw the Subcontinent's Independence, its partition and the long-awaited departure of the British.

The headquarters of French India finally emerged from its colonial torpor. Some letters from Colonel Fletcher, the consul general of Great Britain in Pondicherry, addressed to the Indian authorities illustrate the little known role played by the British during the historic months before Independence.

Their endeavour was clear: 'We are leaving, the French also should leave.'

Francois Baron, the last governor of French India had other aspirations, probably too idealistic. This senior French government servant dreamt of 'cultural' collaboration between France and India. His view was that though the British were leaving, their language, their model of governance, of bureaucracy and even their Macaulayan system of education remained behind on the Subcontinent. Why could not the French leave behind a great university based on French language and culture: this was also the thinking of a few in Pondicherry and Paris?

The British opposed it tooth and nail. It was never to be. One can only regret it today, when so many IITs or IIMs are producing graduates who brilliantly represent India in English speaking countries. There is no such a possibility for France.

Text: Claude Arpi; photograph: courtesy Claude Arpi