French India, formally the
Établissements français dans l'Inde ("French establishments in India"), was a
French colony comprising geographically separate enclaves on the
Indian subcontinent. The possessions were originally acquired by the
French East India Company beginning in the second half of the 17th century, and were
de facto incorporated into the
Union of India in 1950 and 1954. The French establishments included
Pondichéry,
Karikal and
Yanaon on the
Coromandel Coast,
Mahé on the
Malabar Coast and
Chandernagor in
Bengal. French India also included several
loges ("lodges", subsidiary trading stations) in other towns, but after 1816 the
loges had little commercial importance and the towns to which they were attached came under British administration.