Leftist Le Pen!

Every time there is a presidential election in France, the Alliance Française de Madras gears up to enable a few hundred French nationals in Chennai to cast their votes. It is not as far-fetched as you might think; there are quite a few joint-ventures with French firms based in Chennai (Think Saint-Gobain, Michelin, Areva, Alstom, Faurecia...). Pondicherry, with many more French citizens, had to put up two polling booths. Chennai needed only one, and last April, the AFdM became a polling booth. 

There were pictures of the candidates displayed at the AFdM; it must have been done before election day, I assume. This picture was taken on April 10, the day of the first round of elections last year. And all these pictures were stacked up beside the stairs leading up to the cafe / auditorium, not a location where it would easily catch your eye. 

And the way the candidates are ordered. Surprised, aren't you? Marine Le Pen is not the first leftist name you can think of and I daresay you know that Fabien Roussel is hardly ever on the right. But here they are, on their own opposite sides, in faraway Chennai!

 

A French connection

As we head towards Independence Day (August 15), it is worth thinking about what might have been, had the French not traded away Madras for Cape Breton (Nova Scotia, Canada) at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. Under Bertrand Francois LaBourdonnais, the French had captured Fort St. George in 1746 and had razed sections of the 'Black Town' outside the Fort. But the French diplomats thought Cape Breton to be a more lucrative prize and returned Madras to the British. The French military did not share this view and for the next decade, there were many efforts to take back the Fort (including comte de Lally's shelling from Parry's Corner). It was not until de Lally was defeated by Sir Eyre Coote at the great plains of Vandavasi (the Battle of Wandiwash, as it is called) that the French gave up their plans for Madras and concentrated on Pondicherry and their other, smaller possessions in India.

Their interest in India continues in various forms, of which the most public is the Alliance Française, whose purpose is to spread French language and culture around the world. In Chennai, the Alliance Française of Madras was founded in 1953 and offers many services to achieve its purpose. One of the most efficient ways, the language courses, cover over 3000 students a year. The courses range from the 75-hour crash course to the 700-hour course that prepares you for the Diplôme de Langue examination. It's main centre, on College Road, not only houses the language classes, but also an amphitheatre, an auditorium, a small cafe, and a library / information centre.

If things had turned out differently 260 years ago, it probably would be the British Council that is housed in this quiet building, trying to teach English in a predominantly French speaking Chennai!