Coup d'État de Yanaon

The Coup d'état of Yanaon [Eng.: Yanam] was a tense but ultimately non-lethal political coup at Yanam, India, in 1954. It occurred as India and France held ongoing negotiations regarding the future of French settlements in India. Yanam, along with Pondicherry, Karikal, and Mahé, was one of four small French colonial enclaves remaining in India after its 1947 independence from Britain. Though widely separated along both of India's coasts, the towns were collectively known as Pondicherry [Fr: Pondichéry; mod. India: Puducherry], after the largest of the settlements.

Yanam had pro-France (anti-integration) leaders such as Samatam Krouschnaya, Kamichetty Sri Parassourama Varaprassada Rao Naidu, and Kamichetty Venougopala Rao Naidou, as well as pro-India (pro-merger) leaders like Dadala Raphael Ramanayya, V. Subbiah, Edouard Goubert and Madimchetty Satianandam. While Krouschnaya would remain committed to France, most of the anti-integration leaders later switched to the pro-merger camp. The integration of the colony into India was further hastened by the active intervention of India's consul, Kewal Singh.

The coup d'état of Yanaon was interpreted differently by different people. While Indian nationalists considered it an act of liberation, some pro-French leaders saw it as an act of treachery.

After India gained its independence from Britain in 1947, there was immense pressure on France to relinquish control of its small Indian territories. Some areas were quickly ceded, but others, with deeper French cultural ties, were reluctant to sever ties with France, or wanted to negotiate special status within the Union of India. In 1948 the Indian and French governments agreed that the future political status of Puducherry would be determined by referendum of its residents; that October, in elections widely seen as unfair, pro-French councillors won nearly every Municipal Assembly seat in Pondicherry territory.

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