Mobile Citizens: French Indians in Indochina 1858–1954 by Natasha Pairaudeau (review)

This book tells the story and history of Indian migrants to Indochina during the French colonial period. France was the colonial power in the three Indochinese states of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam; its dominance over Indochina ended with its defeat by the North Vietnamese military at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. France left Indochina and never succeeded in making a comeback, political or military. According to the author, the Indian migrant community in Indochina was a thriving community which managed to acquire many rights and privileges as French citizens. The book presents an interesting account of the origin of these 'French Indians', their legal status, rights and privileges as French citizens, spheres of activity, rights and privileges which include raising the Indian public profile, voting rights and their interactions with the local communities in Indochina. The book contains 370 pages, including the index, and is divided into eight chapters.

Citizenship, migration and colonial society are some of the main issues discussed in the book. It begins by tracing the origin of the so-called 'French Indians' to Pondicherry, where they were granted French citizenship, and later moved to Indochina. Those who went to Indochina consisted primarily of two groups of people 'from the two extreme ends of the French Indian circles'. The first group consisted of French Indians on the higher rung of the socio-economic ladder, as described by the author 'a small, Francophile, progressive minority'. The other group consisted of those at the bottom of the social ladder, the pariahs who were deeply stigmatized by the rest of the society. These two groups had the opportunity to receive French education, which in turn became a factor that took them to Indochina in search of better opportunities to raise their status, both economic and social. This was especially so with regard to the 'pariah group' who were stigmatized by their own society in India. In 1881 the French introduced the decree of 'renunciation' to Indians in Cochinchina, quite similar to the one introduced earlier in Pondicherry. By this decree, Indians 'renounced' their rights in India and embraced French citizenship. Another factor that facilitated the increase in the number of French Indians in Cochinchina was the impact of the Treaty of Paris of 1815 in which Britain forbade France 'from constructing military fortifications in French India and severely limited the troops it could retain on Indian soil'. However, from 1908, French authorities circumvented this restriction by recruiting men from French India who were eligible for military service to the nearest recruitment centre in the French overseas empire. The nearest recruitment centre to French India was Saigon.

Having established the origin of the French Indians and their coming to Cochinchina/ Indochina, the book goes on to explain the rights and contractual privileges enjoyed by these French Indians. By the early 1920s Indians with French citizenship in Indochina enjoyed electoral privilege. They enjoyed the same rights and privileges as French citizens. There were attempts by the authorities in Cochinchina to challenge these rights, but French Indian residents of Saigon reacted strongly to restrictions imposed on their privileges. This resulted in the French authority's acceptance that Indians who renounced their indigenous personal status and accepted the French civil code were to be recognized as full French citizens.

In chapter three, 'At Work in Indochina: Indian French Citizens and Tamil Spheres of Activity', the author examines the range of occupations and activities undertaken by Indian French citizens and other Indian migrants in Indochina, especially the Tamil community. As the author explains, Indian French citizens in Indochina were mainly employed in areas which were closely connected to French colonial interests. The posts they occupied included legal clerkships, tax collectors, police and military personnel, putting them in the category of 'important intermediary group' that helped to buttress the colonial administration. It is interesting to note that this employment pattern was also established by the French colonial authorities among the Vietnamese 'petit-bourgeois' group. Besides being...