Pondicherry
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Pondicherry. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the chief of the French settlements in India; on the Cor settleme omandel coast; 53 miles S. W. of Madras city; is divided into two parts by a city; canal, White (European) town being It has handsome streets, next the sea. a government house, a college, a lighthouse, and cotton mills, besides native dyeing establishments.' Pop. (1917) 47,321. Exports chiefly oil seeds. The French colony of Pondicherry has an area of 115 square miles. Pop. (1917) 166,793. The governor of Pondicherry is governor-general of the French pos sessions in India. The French first settled here in 1674. The Dutch took the town in 1693, but restored it to the French in 1697. In 1748 Admiral Bos besieged Pondicherry for months, but was compelled to raise the siege. Eyre Coote, however, took it in 1763. It was once more taken by the English under Sir Hector Monro in 1778, and once more given back in 1783. In 1793 the English again repossessed themselves of it, but it was a third time restored to the French in 1816.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
pon-di-sher'i, the capital of French India. When driven out of India by the British, France retained certain trading stations. Since the treaties of 1814 and 1815 these tracts, including in all an area of about 196 square miles, have been known as French India. They are mere ports, situated on the east coast and the west coast of southern Hindustan. The total population in 1907 was estimated at 287,402. The colony is represented in the French Assembly by one senator and one deputy. Pondicherry, the capital, has a population of about 46,000. A French governor resides here. Pondicherry is well built, and maintains a public school system. There are cotton and jute mills, employing over 6,000 persons. Pondicherry and the other ports send on to France vegetable oils and other minor exports to the value of about $5,000,000 a year.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe a French colony, its governor-general and its deputy in the Paris assembly; that arrangement ended in 1954, when France transferred the enclaves to India, with the treaty of cession ratified in 1962. Pondicherry became the Union Territory of Puducherry, still made up of the scattered pockets the accounts noted around Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam and it was officially renamed Puducherry in 2006. The cotton and jute mills that Aiton's said employed over 6,000 people in 1910 have largely gone; the town is now better known for tourism, for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram founded in 1926, and for Auroville, the international township begun in 1968 just to the north. Population has grown far beyond the 46,000-47,000 the two entries report, to roughly a quarter of a million in the city and over a million in the territory, though the French quarter's grid of streets and some official use of French survive.
Written for this edition, 2026.