Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
La Compagnie française des Indes orientales (French East India Company) was formed and in 1667
the French India Company sent out another expedition, under the command of François Caron which
reached Surat in 1668 and established the first French factory in India. In 1669, Marcara succeeded in
establishing another French factory at Masulipatam. In 1672, the Mount of Saint Thomas was taken but
the French were driven out by the Dutch. Chandernagore (present-day Chandannagar) was established
in 1673, with the permission of Nawab Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of Bengal. On February 4,
1673, Bellanger, a French officer, took up residence in the Danish Lodge in Pondichéry and the French
Period of Pondichéry began. In 1674 François Martin, the first Governor, started to build Pondichéry and
transformed it from a small fishing village into a flourishing port-town. In 1674, the French acquired
Valikondapuram from the Sultan of Bijapur and thus the foundation of Pondichéry was laid. By 1720, the
French lost their factories at Surat, Masulipatam and Bantam to the British. Soon after his arrival in 1741,
the most famous French Governor of Pondichéry and all French India, Joseph François Dupleix began to
cherish the ambition of a French Empire in India. Dupleix's army controlled a large area between
Hyderabad and Cape Comorin. But then Robert Clive arrived in India in 1744, who dashed the hopes of
Dupleix to create a French Colonial India. After a defeat and failed peace talks, Dupleix was recalled to
France in 1754.
The French left behind a Protestant legacy.
établissements français de l'Inde.
These included Pudhucherry, Karikal and Yanam on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar
Coast, and Chandannagar in Bengal. In addition there were lodges (loges) located at Machilipatnam,
Kozhikode and Surat, but they were merely nominal remnants of French factories.
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