Puducherry diaspora

The Puducherry diaspora is a demographic group of people from Puducherry union territory of India who have emigrated and settled in other parts of the world, significantly in France, Réunion and the French Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Although most of the indentured labourers embarked on their journey from the overseas possessions of French India, they did not necessarily come from there.

In fact, most of the workers were recruited in the hinterlands of the Coromandel Coast and even beyond it, such as Arcot and Chingelput for Puducherry or Tanjore and Trichinopoly for Karaikal district.

Tamil migration to the French West Indies was mainly sailings from Pondicherry City and Karaikal during the years 1853 to 1883 and since 1893 almost all of them got well integrated with the people there.

The Puducherry diaspora community in Martinique of majority are descendants of indentured labourers from India who were brought to the island in the nineteenth century.