Ari Gautier says he turned to Pondicherry after searching for Indian French and Tamil French novelists and finding few voices whose work offered the perspective he wanted to read. In a 2023 interview with Scroll.in, he describes writing about the city as a way to move beyond colonial exotica and the white gaze toward what he calls a “Franco-Pondicherrian perspective.”
Why does Ari Gautier write about Pondicherry?
Gautier tells Scroll.in that his writing grew out of a search for Indian French and Tamil French authors. He found the field nearly empty, he says, and began writing from his own connection to Pondicherry. “Then it became a drug, I got addicted, I can’t write about anything else except Pondicherry,” he says.
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He frames that choice as a response to colonial writing that, in his view, often presents the city through exotica and a white gaze. “I wanted to move away from that narrative. I wanted to bring something new, something fresh through the Franco-Pondicherrian perspective,” he says. This is Gautier’s account of the literary perspective he wants to offer, rather than a neutral description of all writing about the city. Read the 2023 Scroll.in interview.
What is The Thinnai about?
The Thinnai is the English translation of Gautier’s second novel, Le thinnai. Academic Ananya Jahanara Kabir describes it as a historical novel about Pondicherry, narrated by a child. Blake Smith translated the English edition from French; Scroll’s 2021 conversation and excerpt identify his role. Read the conversation about the novel or read a translated excerpt.
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The title is also part of a wider body of writing about the city. Gautier describes Nocturne Pondichéry as a short-story collection in which many stories feature a thinnai, and says they explore how history affects the characters. In the 2021 conversation, he characterizes the collection as an exploration of contemporary life through psychosocial stories. The conversation also discusses Nocturne Pondichéry.
What did Gautier say about the book’s translations?
In the May 21, 2023 interview, Gautier said The Thinnai had just appeared in Norwegian, translated from French by Synnøve Sundby, and was being translated into Tamil. Those are the translation status and plans he reported at that time; they do not establish whether a Tamil edition or later editions are currently available.
How does Gautier describe his own background?
In the same interview, Gautier says he was born in Madagascar, left when he was three months old, and moved away from Pondicherry at sixteen. He later spent eight years in the city before moving to Oslo. He also recounts discovering relatives in Madagascar around the age of forty and reflects on how his family’s identities shifted across caste, religion, colonial status and citizenship. These details are his account of his life and family history.
What does Gautier mean by “négrodalitalité”?
Gautier says he coined “négrodalitalité” to bring together négritude and dalitalité. It is his own term and way of framing intersecting histories and identities, not a scholarly category established by the interview. He also offers an interpretation of French colonial memory, arguing that French narratives have portrayed France as gentler than Britain while overlooking psychological violence. That claim is his analysis; the interview alone does not establish it as a historical consensus.
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What other Pondicherry projects did he describe?
In 2023, Gautier spoke of an unfinished novel spanning roughly 300 years of Pondicherry history, following a family through places shaped by the French colonial empire. He also described a parallel project on the city’s streets, architecture and urbanization. These were plans he discussed at the time, not confirmation of their current status. A 2025 Mint article later listed Nocturne Pondicherry, Le Thinnai and Carnet Secret de Lakshmi among his works set in Pondicherry. See Mint’s 2025 profile.
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