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Revisiting the barracks

Walk down the Gourbert Salai for a peep into the past

PHOTO: T. SINGARAVELOU

HOUSING HISTORY The former sepoy barracks

When we walk on Goubert Salai, towards the South, a few meters away from the city hall, we can see an old building framed by several modern constructions. It reminds us of a time when this place had another value.

For the past 200 years, the police head quarters has been functioning from here. In front of it, we see the former barracks of the sepoys of Pondicherry. These barracks existed before the construction on the west of another building (on the other side of the Dumas Street). If the street of the barracks was baptised as "Caserne Street", it wasn't because it was running alongside the military buildings, but because it led to the barracks (the "Caserne" in French).

The sepoys were stationed here in 1816. When the French returned to Pondicherry after 25 years of British occupation, they had to re-establish their sovereignty fast and gather their (French) hundred sepoys. At that time, all the military buildings had been destroyed. Theremaining former army camps, judged unfit for this usage, had to be used as godowns. Governor Dupuy noticed that there was only one suitable place to house the sepoys, and it was the buildings of the former navy store.

In fact, the former barracks of the sepoys was situated in a place much older than the navy store. The park of the navy was founded in 1766 under Governor Law de Lauriston, four years after the storming of Pondicherry by the British and the resulting devastation. Law de Lauriston put engineer Bourcet in charge of constructing stores for the usage of the Navy of the King and the Compagnie des Indes (the French Indian Company). In that small perimeter in the shape of a horseshoe, running alongside the fortifications, one could find all the replaceable equipment for the vessels of the Company: wood, ropes, tar and pitch, masts and other navy utensils. The park remained without any important modifications from 1766 to 1793.

The building was not changed when the sepoys moved in. But it was not fit for its new usage. Despite the yard that could be used for military exercises, it remained a poorly ventilated godown. As the sepoys did not stay here at night, several attempts were made to modify the places in order to quarter them properly. In 1836, construction work of a big extent was considered, but it was not given due priority by the government and it was never undertaken. Only some roofs were re-laid. And as long as the sepoys inhabited this barracks, they did not sleep there. They left in 1868, and moved to the new building on the other side of the street, constructed in 1858.

This building was then used as an important store in Pondicherry and stocked highly taxed merchandises such as tobacco, betel and alcohol. To increase its capacity, buildings were added at the entrance and the inside, but the old navy store of the 18th Century was still very much recognisable.

This store of tobacco and betel functioned until the end of the 1930s. But the social position of the colony worried France and a new European contingent was sent to Pondicherry. They too settled in the former barracks of the sepoys. Then, between 1940 and 1954, a new floor was added.

Today, when we stand in front of the old barracks - that is to say in front of the former park of the navy, we see only a part of its army camps on the Dumas Street, and an old godown on the "Cours Chabrol". It has been preserved because it probably belongs to an individual since the 19th Century.

RAPHAËL MALANGIN

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