India: A scene in Pondicherry, late 17th century

Pondicherry was the capital of the former French territories in India. Besides Pondi itself – acquired from a local ruler in 1674 – these included Chandernagore in Bengal (1690); Mahé in Kerala (1725); Yanam in Andhra Pradesh (1731); and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu (1739). Chandernagore was returned to India three years after independence, in 1951, and was absorbed into West Bengal. Returned to India in 1956, the remaining four territories were constituted as the Union Territory of Pondicherry in 1962.

Today Karaikal, Yanam and Mahé are all small seaside resort towns, known chiefly for their cheap beer made possible by Pondicherry's light alcohol taxes. Karaikal, on the Coromandel Coast 100 kilometres south of Pondicherry, is similar to rural Pondi – a prosperous, Tamil-speaking enclave renowned for the abundance of its rice harvests. Yanam, located on the coast of Andhra Pradesh more than 600 kilometres north of Madras, is a tiny, Telugu-speaking town on a branch of the Godavari River. Mahé, on the Malabar Coast of northern Kerala is a quaint, picturesque town, named for its founder, Count Mahé de La Bourdonnais.

In September 2006, the territory changed its official name from Pondicherry to the vernacular original, Puducherry, which means 'New village'.

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