Puducherry

Puducherry is a Union Territory made up of four separate enclaves — Puducherry and Karaikal on the Tamil Nadu coast, Yanam in coastal Andhra Pradesh, and Mahe on the Kerala coast. The administrative centre is the town of Puducherry. The total area is only about 490 sq km.

The territory was French until 1954, and the French period left a visible mark: the grid-patterned streets and villas of the old town, the French language in some schools, and a legal system in which the French civil code still governs marriage, divorce and succession for those who registered under it. The economy depends on services, tourism, education and small manufacturing, with fishing and farming in the outlying enclaves.

Puducherry’s best-known institutions are the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, founded in 1926, and Auroville, an international township established in 1968 about 10 km north of the town, which holds a large tract of land and runs its own schools and enterprises. The territory is one of only three Union Territories with an elected legislature.