Tamil Heroes of French India: Their role in Business, Social Reforms and in Netaji's Freedom Struggle from Vietnam
Publisher: TPLMS & Ilakkiya
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Pondicherry
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 208
ISBN-13: 9788192085616
Description: This book deals with the history and career of the members of a Tamil family of Pondicherry who had migrated to French Indochina. Darmanathan Prouchandy of this family was the first steam navigator from south India, who plied steamers in the Mekong delta since 1891. His attempt to ply a steamer between Saigon and Thailand was thwarted by the French colonial authorities of Saigon in 1895. 
Later Saverikannu Prouchandy of the same family emerged as one of the leading landowners and rubber plantation owner of Indochina. He was conferred the award of Chevalier du Mérite Agricole by the French Government in the year 1914.
Much later in the 1930s, his nephew Léon Prouchandy started the Dress Reforms Movement among the Indians. He exhorted his countrymen to take to Western dresses while travelling abroad. In the 1940s, he joined the Netaji movement to free India from foreign yoke. He ultimately became a martyr for the cause of Indian Independence.
Though this book recounts the stroy of this family since the 1870s, it is also in many ways the history of the Indians and Tamils like the Nattukottai Chettiars and the Tamil Muslims, who had migrated to French Indochina.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: Introduction:; title: Part I:; title: Saga of the Prouchandy Family; title: I.   French in Pondicherry and Indochina; title: II.  Origin and Ancestry of the Prouchandy family:; title: III: Darmanathan Prouchandy: Steam Navigation and Business; title: IV: Saverikannu Prouchandy: The Owner of Hundred Houses; title: V:  Léon Prouchandy: Reforms, Social Activities and Political Views; title: VI: Political Martyrdom of Léon Prouchandy; title: Part II:; title: I.  Essays by Léon Prouchandy (tr. into English from French by J.B.P.More); title: II. Reforms Initiated by Léon Prouchandy among Hindus; title: III. Other Press News related to Léon Prouchandy; title: Notes:; title: Bibliography:; title: Index