French India Stamp – The-Philatelist

In stamp collecting there is much about colonies. If there is a universal theme, it might be that trouble comes when a settlement goes beyond a trading post. Sometimes even maintaining a trading post is not realistic when the times are against it. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The aesthetics of this stamp are fun. It celebrates the 1939 New York World Fair. But colonial issues stay around a while probably as they have to be ordered/requested from the home country. In this case the colony of Pondicherry and a few other trading posts had aligned with the Free French on the Allied side of World War II. Hence the old New York Fair is overprinted France Libre. These were issued in the French trading posts. Vichy France, the German wartime occupation puppet also printed stamps for French India which they still claimed ownership. These new issues did not get to the colony, only collectors.

The stamp today is issue CD82, a 2 Fanon 12 Cashes stamp issued by the Territories of French India in 1941. The overprint was on the 1938 two stamp issue of the New York Worlds Fair in 1939. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.75 mint. The version without the overprint is $1.25. A later version of the overprint that added a cross is $7.25.

Several European countries set up trading posts in India. France and Britain agreed to respect each others posts and both agreed not to meddle in Indian affairs. While that is pretty laughable it explains how the relatively tiny area around present day Puducherry was allowed to last into the mid twentieth century.

World War II created a conundrum for the still far flung French Empire. This can be seen in the behavior of French India governor Louis Bonvin. Bonvin had been appointed governor by the prewar French government after serving in Gabon, French Africa. After the German invasion on June 20th 1940, Bonvin radioed that he felt it was his duty to fight on the Allied side after French defeat. On June 22nd, an armistice between France and Germany was signed and Bonvin immediately recognized the authority of the new German backed Vichy government under Marshal Petain. He was quickly informed by the British that French India would be occupied if it sided with Vichy France. By the 27th, Governor Bonvin announced is unwavering loyalty to the Free French cause. The Vichy government tried Bonvin in a military tribunal in Saigon, Vichy French Indo China convicting him of delivering French territory to a foreign power. He was sentenced to death and his wife sentenced to life in prison. Since the couple was not present the sentences were not carried out. Bonvin returned to France in late 1945 but died the next year of an ailment he received in India. Kind of sad or is it funny that the Vichy death tribunal never got him but colonial jungle fever did. Funny!

Governor Bonvin. You wouldn’t recognize his dancing ability by looking at him

French India was later made untenable by the independence of India in 1947. Already there had been stirrings in labor troubles at Pondicherry textile mills. France and India agreed that the territories should vote on their future. In the event the vote never happened. Socialists unilaterally declared union with India with the support of the mayor of Pondicherry but not the colonial governor. However when the Indian flag was raised over the police station in 1954 that was the de facto end of French India. No one was forced to leave the area and French was still an allowed language. The French government formally ended French India in 1962. Pondicherry was formally renamed Puducherry in 2006 and the left over French architecture is a major tourist draw.

The pro merging with India forces were of course dancing to a different drummer. No doubt the French residents seeing this, were all in favor of a shirt wearing movement among the Indians

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to salute the dancing ability of Governor Bonvin. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

The French were in the city of Pondicherry for 250 years at a trading post. As they were there to trade, and it was a city open to trade as far back as the Romans there was no need to try to convert locals to French cultural or religious practice. This is great for the stamp collector as the place can show off the exotic foreign culture in the context of a French prism. Now Puducherry has the tables turned and likes to show off architectural relics of the French now firmly in the context of modern India. No stamps though. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp shows off the local Hindu Temple to Kali. The overstamp showing the new currency formulation that year inadvertently tell the stamp collector that the place is really all about money. The vast bulk of the people were then and are now Indian. Elections in the late 1940s saw the people vote to stay French. As in Hong Kong, not wanting to break the golden egg trumped national identity. As with Hong Kong the nation will eventually enforce their will, golden egg be dammed.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 1 Fannon 6 caches (1.5 Fannon, 8 Fannons made a Rupee) issued by French India in 1923. The new currency that year replaced Centimes and Francs. An earlier version of this stamp from 1914 has no overstamp. This was a 26 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 cents used. Without the overstamp the value would go to $2.25.

As the Indians of the day were not writing down their own history at the time, the first mentions of the marketplace at Pondicherry were in logs of Roman Empire traders in the first century AD. At the time the city was known as Poduke. It was part of the then Indian Empire of Kanchipuram.

The French arrived in the area in 1674 under the auspices of the privately owned French East India company. The company had a large investment personally by the French King and had a monopoly on French trade with Asia. The company fairly quickly failed as it was very expensive to maintain far flung outposts from India to Madagascar to Mauritius. After the financial failure the French government stepped in more formally to protect the enclave from British or Indian encroachment.

Kali first appeared as a Goddess around 600 AD. Kali translates into the feminine form of the fullness of time. She appears when the higher Goddess Durga is attacked by two demons. Durga responds with such anger that her skin darkens resulting in Kali appearing out of her forehead. Kali’s is colored dark blue with sunken eyes, a tiger skin sari dress and a garland of severed human heads. She quickly defeats the two demons. I can understand why the stamp shows her Temple rather than Kali directly. It might have made Pondicherry seem unwelcoming.

Well my drink is empty so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. 27th wedding anniverary greetings to Mrs. The Philatelist who takes all the stamp pictures for the website.