Jugements du tribunal de la Chaudrie de Pondichery 1766-1817.

• Author: Rocher, Ludo
• Position: Brief Reviews of Books

Jugements du tribunal de la Chaudrie de Pondichery 1766-1817. By JEAN-CLAUDE BONNAN. Publications du Departement d'Indologie, 88.1-2. Pondicherry: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY, ECOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT, 1999. Pp. lxix + 969 [paginated consecutively].

There is no act or regulation that officially founded and set out the mandate of the tribunal called the chaudrie/chauderie of Pondicherry. Yet, a document has been preserved that refers to a judgment pronounced by that court as early as 14 August 1703. More specifically, on 5 November 1728, the tribunal "vulgairement appele Chaudry" is described as "l'endroit oh se rend la justice aux noirs" (p. iv). A regulation of 25 October 1766 required that a register in French--from 22 June 1771 also in Tamil--be kept of the decisions of the court, to replace the palm leaves that had been used up to that time. It is from these materials that Jean-Claude Bonnan and a team of collaborators have compiled two volumes, nearly one thousand pages of printed text, of decrees issued by the chaudrie over a period of twenty-five years.

When one reads the deliberations and the judgments of the court--and the long and learned introduction to these volumes--one cannot help comparing the legal situation in Pondicherry with what happened in the same time period in British India. On 15 August 1772, in Calcutta, the Committee of Circuit, presided over by Warren Hastings, issued its far-reaching "Plan for the Administration of Justice," by which, among many other things, "in all suits regarding inheritance, marriage, caste, and all other religious usages or institutions, the laws of...