‘Shared Heritage: France-South Asia’: Exonian helps launch digital resource at the National Library of France
Aditi Gupta presents at the France-South Asia: A Flow of Knowledge conference (Photo courtesy of BnF, Paris)
On 15 October 2024, I had the pleasure of participating in a conference titled ‘France-South Asia: A Flow of Knowledge’ at the National Library of France (BnF). It marked the official launch of a unique digital resource, ‘Shared Heritage: France-South Asia’.
This digital library results from a collaboration between the BnF and esteemed institutions across France and India. This unique platform offers an immersive journey through the history of cultural and diplomatic connections between France and South-Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan). Available in both French and English, the library brings together digitised collections from different departments of the BnF and partner institutions, capturing centuries of shared exchanges, perceptions, and reflections. It features a wide range of materials, from official archives to printed books, manuscripts, maps, engravings, and photographs, all vividly portraying the richness of this historic partnership.
The library’s content is organised into seven key themes: power and diplomacy, travellers and residents, knowledge exchange, science and technology, languages and literature, philosophy, and arts. These sections are enriched with articles by experts, including academics, researchers, and doctoral students. In this framework, my conference paper titled ‘Jean-Baptiste Gentil (1726-1799): A Significant Page in Indo-French Relations’ contextualised the life and journey of 18th-century French adventurer Gentil, whose collection and writings form the corpus of my thesis. I have contributed two articles to the project: one on Gentil’s journey in India and another one on 19th-century French artist Gustave Moreau‘s use of Indian motifs in his artworks.
