Performing Independence in Puducherry: Commemorative Public Holidays and Postcolonial Imaginaries in the Former French India

When India gained independence in 1947, its Independence Day ceremonies became a prototype setting the standard for marking and ritualising imperial withdrawal and achievement of sovereignty in former colonies across the world. Since then, much has been written on the cultural, social and political significances of the annually recurrent celebration of the postcolonial world’s many Independence Days. If India has featured prominently in theorising the significance of the ritualised celebration of Independence Day and related national holidays, then this has been from a particular vantage point: That of independence from British rule. Yet this historical perspective far from exhausts the relevant field of post/colonial relations and imaginaries on India and its independence. Through an ethnographic analysis of public holidays commemorating independence, this article argues that investigating the celebration of independence in the former French India, the Union Territory of Puducherry, provides a contrapuntal perspective which can serve to decentre and reframe perspectives on Indian postcolonial imaginaries and understandings of independence. While refracted through the lens of the powerful narratives and ritual practice which surround decolonisation from the British empire, such holidays also constitute symbolic sites where minor histories remain in dialogue and tension with the major narrative on Indian national history and identity.