EAP191/1/4

The Revue historique de l’Inde française (or Historical Journal of French India) was launched in 1916. Till then the Société de l’Histoire de l’Inde Française (SHIF) was only publishing books. A general meeting of all its members in April 1916 decided that a half-yearly journal would be published alternately with the publication of the monographs. An introduction to the SHIF that appears at the beginning of the Revue historique vol. 1 explains the objectives of the journal: “This journal should normally publish original articles, pertaining mainly to the history of French India, but when necessary slightly encroaching on the history of India herself, and may also publish ancient documents which are too short to be made into special editions.” (RHIF Vol. 1 (1916-1917), p. 8). Many eminent historians contributed to the journal, among them G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Alfred Martineau, Edmond Gaudart, Yvonne Gaebelé, A. Singaravélou, Charles Gravelle, Gnanou Diagou etc. Some of their longer articles, serialized in the Revue, were later brought out by the SHIF as separate fascicules. The annual subscription rate of the 1st issue of the journal was 25 Francs. Although the statutes of the SHIF stated that the monographs and journal would be published alternatively every 3 months, which effectively meant that there would be one issue of the Revue historique every semester, the frequency of the journal was actually quite irregular: volumes 1 to 5 came out between 1916 and 1922, vol. 6 in 1936, vol. 7 in 1948 and volumes 8 and 9 in 1952 and 1955 respectively. Volume 8 was the last to be titled Revue historique de l’Inde française. Volume 9, published after the merger of Pondicherry with the Indian Union, appeared as the Revue historique de l’Etat de Pondichéry. Subsequently, for unknown reasons, the publication of the Revue was suspended. It reappeared only in 1972, under the name of Revue historique de Pondichéry. The periodicity of the journal began to be almost regular, as an annual volume, with the Volume 15. From Vol. 10 onwards it became trilingual (French, English, and Tamil), although volumes 15 to 17 were exclusively in English. It continues to be published to this day. The library of the French Institute of Pondicherry has the complete run of this journal.

9 volumes. Their height ranges from 23.5 cm to 25.5 cm.