French India is a general name for the French establishments set up by the French East India Company in India from the second half of the 17th century onward, and officially known as the Établissements français dans l'Inde from the resumption of French rule in 1816 to their de facto incorporation into the Union of India in 1949 and 1954.
They include Pondichéry, Karikal and Yanaon on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar Coast, and Chandernagor in Bengal.
French India also includes several loges (subsidiary trading stations that all European East India companies maintain in a number of Indian towns), but after 1816 these are nominally French only.The total area amounts to 510 km2 (200 sq mi), of which 293 km2 (113 sq mi) belongs to the territory of Pondichéry.
In 1936, the population of the colony totals 298,851 inhabitants, of which 63% (187,870) live in the territory of Pondichéry.
