Chandernagor

Chandernagor (in Bengali চন্দননগর ) is a city of the Western Bengal located on banks of the Gange, to about thirty kilometers of Calcutta. The current name of Chandernagor is Chandannagar . It is one of old the French Établissements of India. The city counted 150  000 inhabitants with the census of 2001.

One gives two etymologies to Chandernagor, making it come from will chandra , “the moon”, because the city is on a curve of Gange or chandan , “Santal”, because one made of it the trade in the area, and nagar , “city”. It was also called Farasdanga , name coming from the French name.

History

The city does not seem to have existed before the arrival of the French, but like Calcutta, finds its origin in three villages of the edge of Gange, Borokishanpur, Khalisani and Gondalpara. The first reference is made there in a letter dated from the November 21st 1696, signed François Martin, Deslandes and the Pellé merchant, addressed to the director of the French Compagnie of the Eastern Indies (CFIO).

In 1674, the CFIO sends the Duplessis gentleman to buy a ground - 20 arpents for 401 rupees, the even moneys carry misfortune to India - on the Hûghlî an arm of Gange. It negotiates with Ibrahim Khan, the nabob of the Bengal and built a building, in the north of the current city. But soon, the Dutchmen, installed with little distance, obtain, by means of gifts, the good graces of the Nabab and the French give up the zone, in 1677, for lack of profit.

The second contact takes place in 1684, when a vessel charged with goods started from Pondichéry bound for the island Joncelang - today the island of Phuket in Thailand - is taken in a storm, diverts and reaches Hûghlî. The Bertrand merchant who was on the boat returns in Pondichéry in 1685 and sees himself entrusting the mission of going back to Bengal. He reaches Balassor, traverses the country and returns a report/ratio with the CFIO extremely favorable to the trade in Bengal.

The August 30th 1688, François Martin, the governor of Pondichéry, missionne his son-in-law Andre Torturer-Deslandes, on order of the CFIO, to found counters in Bengal. The nabob has just granted to France the right to make trade in Bengal, the Bihar and in Orissa against the payment of 40.001 rupee S, without ancillary costs. The city will be surrounded by a surrounding wall and a ditch, designed by the architect and Jesuit Duchatz.

Of 1694 with 1699, François Martin remains in the city at the time of catch of Pondichéry by the Dutchmen in 1693, it will be restored in 1697 by the Traité of Ryswick, but the conflict puts at evil the French trade in Bengal because the Dutchmen block the mouth of Gange.

A decree of the emperor Aurangzeb confirms, in 1698, the right of the CFIO to trade in Bengal. It counts, in 1703, 29 employees with Chandernagor. At that time, Pondichéry is the principal administrative center and Chandernagor the principal shopping mall and will pay until a million rupees per annum. Half of the budget reserved for India by the France is invested in the urban development and the presence of the other European powers being made more proclamation, one built there the Fort of Orleans in 1696-97.

When the August 16th 1731, Joseph François Dupleix settles in Pondichéry, it consequently becomes occasion the administrator as a chief of Chandernagor. Under its administration, the highway network is improved, of the private mansions are built. But the city falls with its disappearance and does not survive any more but by the work of the local merchants. Most famous of them is Indranarayan Chowdhury. Sharpened as broker of the CFIO in 1730, two years later, it rents the territory of the counter for 12.000 rupees per annum. In 1735, it receives a medal of Louis XV.

The colonel Robert Cleaves English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies and the admiral Watson of the British army takes Chandernagor the March 23rd 1757.

In 1790, in Chandernagor, the commander Montigny is stopped. Lord Cornwallis must release it and they take refuge in Calcutta. Benoît Mottet of the Fountain in the name of the colonial Parliament of Pondichéry comes to replace Montigny, as governor of Chandernagor. Certain Canaples makes the same request in the name of the colonial Parliament of the Ile de France: “He is declared treacherous with the fatherland”.

The fate of French India is played. The French will recover the city by treaty, will again lose it in 1794, for finally controlling it 1816 with 1950, year when it is integrated into the Indian Union, local population having voted with 97% her fastening.

Before settling in Pondichéry, Aurobindo Ghose took refuge in Chandernagor.

Inheritance

  • the Chandannagar Museum and Institute which preserves memories of the French presence
  • the church of Chandannagar and the ruins of the church Saint-Louis

Notes and references of the article

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