Pondicherry's Independence

This is Dupleix's statue,
the first governor of the
French Pondicherry

Joseph François Dupleix became Pondicherry's governor on the 15 january 1742, when the city was colonized. For a few years, some European countries had captured Pondicherry. Then, when the British gained control of the whole of India in the late 1850s, they allowed the French to retain their settlements in the country. Pondicherry remained a part of French India until Pierre Mendés France, a French politician, signed a pact with the Indian government in 1954. Pondicherry wanted to become independent because in 1947, India had gained its independence.