Liberte', Egalite', Fraternite'- by K J S Chatrath

 

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14th July, or the Day of the Bastille is a good day to recall the French invocation of the slogan Liberte', Egalite', Fraternite'-

Liberty leading the people, the iconic painting by Eugene Delacroix

And that is a chic version of 'equality'. I am a francophile, but to be fair handed one must recall that the French gave voting rights to women only in July 1944! So much for equality!

And talking about liberty, one knows that France has, what it calls DOM-TOM- or the Overseas Departments and Overseas Territories which are legally part of France though these island are thousand of kms away from the mainland France.  And we in India remember how difficult it was to persuade the French to leave its erstwhile colonies in India- Pondicherry et al. It clung on to those till 1962.Liberty?