In 1946,

French India French India, formally the (), was a French colony comprising five geographically separated enclaves on the Indian subcontinent that had initially been factories of the French East India Company. They were ''de facto'' incorporated into the ...

(''Inde française'') became

Overseas territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

(''

Territoire d'outre-mer The term overseas territory (, TOM) is an administrative division of France and is currently only applied to the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The division differs from that of overseas department and region ( or DROM), but because of ...

'') of France. Then, in the same year on 25 October, the Representative Assembly of French India (''Assemblée représentative de l'Inde française'') of 44 members has been created that replaced the general council (''conseil général'') of 30 members.

Formation

During the start of Fourth Republic, by decree nº 46–2381, dated 25 October 1946, passed by the

Government of France The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

instituted a ''Representative Assembly in the French India''.Journal Officiel des établissements français dans l'Inde, 1946. People of both genders have been allowed to vote. This assembly had 44 seats in total. A member of this assembly was referred as ''Councillor''. The seat of the representative assembly is assigned at Pondichéry and the tenure is fixed to be 5 years.

Commune-wise allocation of seats

French India consisted of five ''establishments'', namely, Pondichéry, Chandernagore, Karikal, Mahé and

Yanaon Yanaon (, , ) was one of the five principal settlements of French India between 1731 and 1954. It was referred to in British records as Yanam. Early years Reason for European interests The French in their earlier records does mention their ...

. The allocation of 44 seats of the Assemblée Représentative of

for the 17 communes of French India. Établissements de

Pondichéry Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the capital and most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of India and is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal to ...

and

Karikal Karaikal (, , Help:IPA/French, /kaʁikal/) is a port city of the Indian States and territories of India, Union Territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is the administrative headquarters of the Karaikal district, Karaikal Di ...

had eight and six electoral constituencies (''circonscription électorales''), respectively. While,

Chandernagore Chandannagar (), also known by its former names Chandannagore and Chandernagor (), is a city in the Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is headquarter of the Chandannagore subdivision and is a part of the area covered by ...

, Mahé and

had one electoral constituency, respectively. As per Article 2 of the decree, the composition of the assembly is determined as below *Établissement de

(total 22 seats) **

: 6 ** Ariancoupom: 2 **Bahour: 2 **Modéliarpeth: 2 **Oulgaret: 4 **Nettapacom: 2 **Tiroubouvané: 2 **Villenour: 2 *Établissement de

(total 12 seats) **

Karaikal Karaikal (, , Help:IPA/French, /kaʁikal/) is a port city of the Indian States and territories of India, Union Territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It is the administrative headquarters of the Karaikal district, Karaikal Di ...

Ville: 4 **Cotchéry: 2 **Grand'Aldée: 2 **Neravy: 1 **Nédouncadou: 1 **Tirnoular: 2 *Établissement de

(total 5 seats) ** Centre-ville ** Nord-est ** Nord-ouest ** Sud-ouest ** Sud-est *Établissement de Mahé (total 3 seats) ** Mahé: 3 *Établissement de

(total 2 seats) **

: 2

List of Seats

Functioning of the assembly

This Assembly met twice in ordinary sessions of 30 days duration and twice in extraordinary sessions of 15 days. It was called either by the Governor or by two-thirds of the members, if necessary on the prerequisite. The ''President of the Assembly'' was selected on the basis of seniority by age. The Assembly was permitted to deliberate and give its opinion on matters referred to it. The Governor or head of the French Indian administration assured the implementation of the decisions or opinions of the Assembly. The budget prepared by the Governor and his council was discussed and it was implemented by his order. In fact the Assembly and the Governor shared the initiative of incurring state expenditure. In short, the Assembly was nothing more than an approving body as the Head of French India was endowed with the power of overriding the decision or opinion of the Assembly. In reality, it could not take up or discuss matters which were not submitted before it, and from that point of view its scope was very restricted.

Impact of Chandernagore merger into Indian Union

Chandernagore has been merged into Indian Union by a referendum held on 19 June 1949, where its people overwhelmingly voted for merger with India. The de facto transfer of Chandernagore to the Indian Union took place on 2 May 1950. This changed the strength of the representative assembly to 39 seats.

1946 French India Representative Assembly election

The first election to the Representative Assembly was held on 15 December 1946. The election was won by the National Democratic Front of

Deiva Zivarattinam Deiva Zivarattinam (born 3 December 1894, Pondicherry, d. 25 March 1975, Pondicherry) was an Indian politician. He represented Pondicherry (then a French colony) in the French Constituent Assembly election in 1945. Zivarattinam studied law and be ...

, that won 30 out of 44 seats.Moutoussamy, Ernest.
Les députés de l'Inde française à l'Assemblée Nationale sous la VIe République
'. Paris .a. Harmattan, 2003. p. 28 The assembly session first met on 6 January 1947. As of June 1959, the president of the assembly (equivalent to speaker in Indian assemblies) was M. Balasubramanian and the Finance minister was Karunendra Mudaliar.

1951 French India Representative Assembly election

The second election to the Representative Assembly was held on 16 December 1951.

Impact of merger of French India into Indian Union

The ''de facto transfer'' of French settlements in India has happened on 1 November 1954. These four French settlements were organized as State of Pondicherry.

Dissolution

On 11 June 1955, The Government of India has dissolved the Representative Assembly of the State of Pondicherry via ''State of Pondicherry (Representative Assembly Decree Amendment) Order''. Later,

Pondicherry Representative Assembly After the merger of French settlements into an Indian union, a new assembly, named the Pondicherry Representative Assembly, was created by the government of India. After the "de facto transfer day" of 1 October 1954, before 16 August 1962 also ...

has been created that functioned until 1964. After the de facto merger and before the legal integration (i.e. de jure transfer) with the Indian Union on 16 August 1962, general elections to the assembly were held in 1955 and 1959. The French settlements in India were de jure transferred on 16 August 1962.

References

{{Puducherry elections French India Colonial India Yanam Puducherry Karaikal French colonial empire 1946 establishments in France