Following the success of a first webinar on "la francophonie en Inde", organised between Bordeaux and Pondicherry in November 2023, the University of Pondicherry is organising an international colloquium on 9, 10 and 11 September 2024 in conjunction with the FrancophoNéA network.

In a multilingual and multicultural Indian world, we want to look in depth at the status and role of the French-speaking world, first and foremost in the context of education. In India, where 22 main languages and nearly 1,500 other linguistic varieties are spoken, even if French is not widely spoken by Indians, it is still the first foreign language taught (after English, which is compulsory) - from primary school level in some states.  

This position of the teaching of French should be seen in the context of the multilingualism of education and the history of the development of the education system in India: a context which involves the development of curricula, the training and evolution of the status of teachers, the comparison of the different 'boards', the level of learners and job opportunities.

Despite this place in the Indian education system, and the presence of major French institutions (Institut français and Campus France) and a very dynamic network of 14 Alliances Françaises, the teaching of French in India only reaches 600,000 to 700,000 pupils, which seems marginal in a country of 1.4 billion inhabitants. One initial observation is that, faced with strong demand, there are still too few qualified teachers (around 6,000), and the status of foreign language teacher is still insufficiently valued.

The aim of this conference is to examine the educational, professional, academic, social and language strategies of French language teaching in India.

Contributions will focus on one of the following areas:

I - The French language in a multilingual context: in the context of the "New Education Policy", the status and place of French (FLE, FOS, FOU) in teaching/learning and the methodologies/approaches through which the language is transmitted will be analysed. Are these methodologies/approaches contextualised (bottom-up approach)? Do they meet the new needs and objectives of different target groups? What skills are being targeted? And what about teacher training?  

II - The circulation of French-language works and the role of translation: this area will focus on French-language literary works produced in the Indian world and the reception of French / French-language literary works translated into the various Indian languages, as well as the place of literary works from the Indian world translated and circulated in the French-speaking world. Special attention will be paid to the imaginary and to representations. Post-colonial francophone African literature, which is very little represented in university textbooks, could be an effective intercultural teaching tool.  We would like to look more broadly at the levers, strategies, methods and impact of promoting the French language and the French-speaking world in India at present and in the near future.

III - The French-speaking diaspora: The historical links between France and India go back a long way and have continued since independence thanks to the presence of French institutions, particularly in Pondicherry (Lycée français, Institut français de Pondichéry, Alliance française, Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient, etc.), and the presence of a small French-speaking minority in the former trading posts and in Auroville.  

Although the native French-speaking population is tending to disappear, French-language studies were introduced very early on in Indian universities. Indeed, French-language writers and major French works translated into Indian languages have contributed to the development of the French-speaking world. In addition, there is a growing interest in French-language works, particularly from Africa and the Indian Ocean, among teachers and researchers in the Indian world, no doubt because of the similar colonial and decolonial context, in particular engagism.

Over and above the colonial heritage, particularly in the former French colonies where there has been a loss of the French language and culture of the mother tongue, we will look at how the French-speaking Indian diaspora is developing a certain cultural identity in the societies where it has settled. In these contexts, we will look in particular at the strategies for transmitting or creolising - but also at the factors that lead to the abandonment - of the French and francophone language and culture.

The aim of this symposium is above all to understand what we can learn today from the exchanges between the Indian world and the French-speaking world: not only the points of convergence and divergence, but also the hybridity and creolity that this implies.

Proposals for papers must include the following information:

First name, surname, institutional assignment, email address
Abstract in French (500 words)
essential bibliography
list of 5 key words

and must be sent to the scientific directors by 15 April 2024 to the following email addresses:

pubufrancophonie@gmail.com and francophonea2024@gmail.com 

10 May: notification of the results of the scientific committee's evaluation of the proposals
15 May: registration opens
15 June: provisional programme
15 July: final programme

Organising committee contacts

At Bordeaux Montaigne University  

Giovanni Agresti
Mariella Causa
Kamala Marius

At Pondicherry University

Sarmila Acharif
Sharmili Jayapal

Scientific committee

Sarmila Acharif, Pondicherry University (Inde)

Giovanni Agresti, Université Bordeaux Montaigne (France) et Università degli Studi di
Napoli “Federico II” (Italie)

Anjali V. Bagde, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad (Inde)

Elara Bertho, UMR LAM SciencesPo/CNRS (France)

Ecaterina Bulea Bronckart, Université de Genève (Suisse)

Mariella Causa, Université Bordeaux Montaigne (France)

Véronique F. Courtois, Ecrivaine, Perpignan (France)

Mohar Daschaudhuri, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Inde)

Ksenija Djordjevic Léonard, Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III (France)

Amélie Hien, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Canada)

Sharmili Jayapal, Pondicherry University (Inde)

Ananya Kabir, King's College, London (Royaume-Uni)

Sushant Kumar Mishra, Nalanda University, Bihar (Inde)

Jean-Marc Mangiante, Université d'Artois (France)

Kamala Marius, Université Bordeaux Montaigne (France)

Bruno Maurer, Université de Lausanne (Suisse)

Marina Ortrud M. Hertrampf, University of Passau (Allemagne)

Anne Raffin, National University of Singapore (Singapour)

Arunkumar Santhalingam, Association of Indian French Professionals & Researchers (Inde)

Gitanjali Singh, Benares Hindu University, Varanasi (Inde)

Sandrine Soukaï, Université Gustave Eiffel (France)

Sofia Stratilaki, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris (France)

François Taglioni, Université de la Réunion (France)

C. Thirumurugan, Pondicherry University, Puducherry (Inde)

Delphine Thivet, Institut Français de Pondichéry (Inde)

Ritu Tyagi, Pondicherry University, Puducherry (Inde)

Jyothi Venkatesh, Bengaluru City University, Bengaluru (Inde)

Arundhati Virmani, EHESS, Marseille (France)

Monica Vlad, Université Ovidius, Constanta (Roumanie)