The French Institute of Pondicherry () UMIFRE 21 is a French research centre in Puducherry, India, under the joint supervision of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is the largest of the 26 research centres under this dual umbrella. It is also part of the research unit 3330 "Savoirs et Mondes Indiens" of the CNRS, along with the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) in New Delhi.
History
Established under the terms of the Treaty of Cession of French Territories in India, the French Institute of Pondicherry was inaugurated on 21 March, 1955 under the name "Institut Français d'Indologie".) It was engaged, under the leadership of its first director (Jean Filliozat), in the study of Indian civilization and culture, and more particularly in the history and the religions of South India.
This culture had to be replaced in its natural environment – at least that was what Nehru encouraged the IFP to implement. Hence a department of Ecology was created to collect information on the conditions and evolution of the environment in South India (vegetation, soils, climate changes, etc.) with its focus on the Western Ghats, one of the world's 34 hotspots for biodiversity.
With the setting up of the department of Social Sciences in 1988, the institute extended its interest to the evolution and dynamics of the Indian society.
The Laboratory of Applied Informatics and Geomatics (LAIG) was set up in the 1990s. In 2017 it became the department GeoSMIT (GeoSpatial Monitoring and Information Technology).
The institute has a library with 70,000 books and more than 120 journals currently received. It is open to the public (catalogue on line).
Fields of research
The IFP is composed of four departments. Yet two keywords group the main part of their research objects: "heritage" and "environment". Heritage, because of the many collections, quite unique (8,400 UNESCO-registered manuscripts, 15,500 species of pollen, 24,000 pages of herbarium, 130,000 photographs catalogued in the photo library ...). But also because of the publications of the IFP (critical editions of Sanskrit texts), and especially its research, dealing with religious rites as well as sacred groves or urban heritage policies. Environment, because this term encompasses very close issues addressed by the IFP, in terms of health and nutrition, Ayurvedic and siddha medicine, forest ecology, biodiversity conservation, climate change, or management of irrigation water.
Research departments
The Department of Indology (historical department) focuses its attention on classical India, namely its religions, its literature, its languages (contemporary Tamil, Sanskrit, etc.) to better interpret and study the foundations of modern India. The Department of Social Sciences promotes research on the "emerging India": social management of water, urban development, demography and social mobility, microfinance and indebtedness, "traditional" and "modern" health care systems, urban planning, agroecology, etc. The Department of Ecology concentrates its research on biodiversity and notably on the functioning of fragile ecosystems (forests, mangroves, littoral, etc.), by considering man as an important parameter in their evolution. It conducts research that aims to understand and evaluate the biological diversity of natural ecosystems as well as those affected by human impact. This research activity has the related aim of contributing to the establishment of schemes for conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. The high priority accorded to research on paleo-environments has yielded a rich and varied collection of pollen. The research conducted at GeoSMIT is both methodological (development of new approaches in remote sensing and computer sciences) and thematic (study of a vegetal or human environment through satellite observation, development of an interactive portal, methods for the analysis of regional biodiversity...). Transversal, interdisciplinary programmes have been launched to break the boundaries of these departments: Coast, Labour, Forest and Water.
Missions
RESEARCH: field work and data collection, organization of scientific events, response to calls for projects, publication of books and academic articles... TRAINING: receiving students on internship, master, doctoral and post-doctoral students from France and other countries.