Liberation of Mahe and Yanam

Conditions became intolerable in Yanam after its Mayor and other representatives of Yanam adopted the merger resolution. The mayor, deputy mayor, and over 200 people took refuge in the adjacent areas of the Indian Union. Police and hired hoodlums from Yanam assaulted refugees on Indian soil. It was then that the refugees marched into Yanam under the leadership of Mayor Satyanandam and took over the administration.

After hoisting the Indian National Flag, the liberators adopted a resolution declaring Yanam liberated. Close on their heels, in Mahe, the Mahajana sabha under its president, I.K. Kumaran began a picketing programme. Some days later, hundreds of volunteers marched into Mahe to stage a demonstration in front of the administrator’s residence. They were joined by the citizens of the enclave. On July 16, 1954, Kumaran took over the administration from the French administrator marking the end of 224 years of French rule in Mahe.

Under the Indo-French Agreement of June 1948, the first municipal elections were held in Chandernagore, also a French territory. In August that year the Congress Karmaparishad won 22 of the 24 seats. The new municipal assembly overwhelmingly voted for its merger with the Indian Union and the Government of India took control of Chandernagore on June 9, 1952. Later, it became a part of the Hoogly district of West Bengal. Thus with the liberation of Mahe and Yanam from French subjugation, Pondicherry became a part of the Indian