The Last Post: Inscriptions on French Graves in India:
By K.J.S.Chatrath
This work deals with the French cemeteries and graves in India. Major French cemeteries in India are located in the erstwhile French colonies in India- Pondicherry, Karikal, Chandernagore, Yanam and Mahe, while there are also some scattered graves in other places. These include graves of Jesuit Priests, Sisters of Cluny and Sisters of St. Joseph of Tabres.
The inscriptions on these graves provide us with varied information- what was
the vocation in life of the deceased, at what age did he die, the cause of his
death, how big a family did he have etc. Besides, these also afford us an
opportunity to go deeper into the background of the person. For exaqmple, one
notices an inscription on a tomb in Agra which simply records in French
"In memory of Jean Charles Jourdan, who was born in March 1818 in La Mans
in France and died in the battle field on 5th July 1857 at Agra". However
on pursuing this bare information, one finds that Jourdan was a member of the
the Agra Militia Cavalry, which comprised of British/Anglo-Indian/European
volunteers from various walks of life, who had collected to take on the Indians
freedom fighters during the fightings in 1857. One of the most fantastic
members of this Unit of cavalry was this Frenchman Jourdan. He was the Chief of
Equestrians of a wandering French Circus. He is recorded to have said that he
went out to fight for "L'Honneur de L'Alliance". He died fighting at
Shahganj (Sacheta).
Though never expressly acknowledged, some of the biggest sacrifices for the
establishment and retention of the French overseas empire were made by the
French ladies. They went to the far away places knowing that they had much more
chances of premature deaths in the harsh weather of the colonies than if they
remained in France. Besides, the chances of living through childbirth were far
less and if they did succeed in enduring it, the possibility of the infants
surviving were even more remote. For example in the Chandernagore cemetery one
sees the heart-breaking inscription on the grave of Anne-Henriette Razet. She
was the wife of Pierre Rouquet. She died on February 11, 1827 at the young age
of 31 leaving behind ten little children. What a fate for the young lady, her
ten kids and the husband she left behind!
Each inscription tells a tale- only if we have the time and the patience to
listen to it.
In his learned foreword to this book, Prof. Jacques Weber, Professor of
Contemporary History, University of Nantes, France writes that the author deals
with "the French of all conditions and of all ages, sometime just infants,
who lost their lives so far away from their motherland, in an extreme climate.
A long quest around the sub-continent has taken the author of this innovative
book to the graves of the unknown who came here on vocation, for the taste of
adventure, a dream of fortune, love for India, and sometimes for the dangers
which lurked in these latitudes. He has made a compendium of the inscriptions
on these gravestones, which are generally modest and ravaged by time in the
memory of the deceased. These show us today the original and moving individual
journeys through life, as well as the traces of uninterrupted relations between
France and India since the XVIIth century."
Book available at pothi.com
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