Duke University Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
South Asia Pamphlets Collection, 1920-2005
Pondicherry, 1954-1972: A Profile of Progress
Designed and Published by the Home (Information & Publicity) Department, Government of Pondicherry. Printed at Sridaran Printer, Pondicherry
One of many booklets printed by the Indian government in the 1960s and 1970s that detail efforts to "modernize" India, on a state-by-state basis. Pondicherry, a city about 130 km south of Madras (Chennai), was controlled by the French until 1954. Between 1947 and 1954, there had been an intense struggle over the future of French India - would the French be allowed to remain in independent India, or would they be forced to leave? Although there was a promise to hold a referendum so that the people of French India could decide their future, the referendum never occurred, and the French agreed to leave in 1954.
This booklet systematically lays out the improvements that had been made since 1954, the end of the French era. The drawing on the cover features a series of roadside markers (although they do look a lot like gravestones). Mobility and accessibility via paved roads were one marker of improvement that showed Pondicherry's "progress" towards modernity.
This picture was printed in the "Family Planning" section, and shows a man receiving a "special prize" for submitting to sterilization. Although it is unclear what the "special prize" was, it is telling that it was distributed in a tote bag with a picture of a Indian girl on it (the braids seem to indicate the picture is meant to represent a girl-child.) This could have been part of another initiative to discourage female infanticide.
While this picture portrays a very reasonable exchange, it is well known that the central Indian government's campaign for sterilization, especially during the period of the Emergency (1975-77) involved forced sterilization, mostly of the poor and low-caste who lived in slums. The science of family planning was considered a mark of modernity, but it was almost always those without resources whose bodies were altered and made sterile by the state.
