The camera turns 180 degrees

Since the data collection for this site began, a decade ago in 2006, it has had a single focus: the understanding of India in the French language. Collaborators in West Bengal and the UK have just enriched that. Now in 2016 we have not only French books on India, but also Indian books on the French in India. Or, to be precise, mini-essays on Bengali accounts of interactions between them and the French and other Europeans (including the British) and on the places in West Bengal influenced by the French. We have turned the camera to point in the other direction, translated this largely unknown material into English (with the French translation to follow) and crosslinked it via key years to our books in French content. So when readers see an Indian flag beside a given a particular year, they can link through to a mention of that year in our English-language essays on Bengali writing. Thereby French books on India has gained another crucial comparative dimension. (Ian Magedera)

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