History of IIF
IIF was conceived back in 2006 by Sourav Choudhury. He came to France in 2003. In an attempt to find Indians here he started to look for them in 2004. He wanted to have our community presence here and a voice for us. In order to do so, he created several channels for them and our community is here today because of all the efforts that were made and all the initiatives that were taken by him along with a few other members. This page is dedicated to the history of Indians in France community.
The first initiative was to form a community on Meet-ups. Meet-ups is an app that is used to plan meet-ups based on different subjects. So he set-up different meet-ups for the Indians to informally meet and know each other. Back in those days, Facebook did not exist. So he started to look on Orkut for the same. He also made a community on Orkut for people to connect. And it was a small success as the people started to connect and started to get to know each other
But that was not good enough and Sourav. He wanted to do much better for the community. He came across a website which was for Americans in France and loved the concept. No one else other than Jeff Steiner (creator of the US site) was doing it. He decided to do something similar to them for our community. So he registered the site Indiansinfrance.com on 17/7/2007
Since he is in web development, he also started a forum on PHPBB. The forum was created for the Indians to share their experiences and also ask questions in any area. The forum started to grow and needed someone to mould it correctly. During this period Sourav quit his job and started on his own. So he started to invest more time in developing the forum almost full-time. After a year, the forum was getting 8000 visits per month. And after 2 years there were about 4000 members on this forum.
There were games like Cricket being organised as social activities. There were also lunches and picnics being organised for the Indian community.
In 2008, Sourav was introduced to Facebook by a friend and he thought FB had more potential than all the other channels, so he started to develop the FB group. In 2009, the IIF page was developed on FB. Unfortunately, his father was detected with cancer mid-year and he left for India. He was back after a year, by then his father was back to good health and he started to develop the group on FB again with the same passion. This is how the journey started and the IIF group was developed. Below are a few highlights of the initiatives taken by IIF in various subjects:
OCTOBER 2014 – MEETING WITH THE DEPUTY AMBASSADOR:
He went to meet our DCM (Deputy Ambassador) to discuss various problems the local Indian community was facing. Some of the issues were:
1. A French business school misleading Indian students
2. Some Hindi speakers were facing problem at the embassy for not knowing English or French and some staffs were not replying in Hindi
3. Hinduism was not getting the value it deserves in France as it is not recognized as a religion here.
Our DCM Shree Indramani Pandey at that time reassured that he will look after the matters, and after a few months there was a positive development
1. Director of the French business school was dismissed. Our Embassy took the matter to the French authority
2. Hindi is now more widely spoken at the embassy and it's now being emphasized that new recruits need to know Hindi
3. The embassy was also working with other bodies to form an umbrella organization that can represent Hinduism in France and it can thereby get the recognition of established religion in this country
OCTOBER 2014 – CELEBRATING DIWALI
Organized Diwali in an Indian restaurant. Our DCM was our chief guest and some 75 people attended the event.
JANUARY 2015 – INDIA AGAINST TERRORISM
After the Charlie incident when a large number of French people went out in the street to show solidarity to the victims, we organized the Grand Indian support show to France. It was a time when political leaders from across the world (except India) came to France and walked in the street along with the French President François Hollande, hand in hand.
He appealed to the Indian diaspora to come out in big number with Indian flags, and march together towards Place de la Republique. There were people who spent the whole night preparing banners and placards for the next day. Some 150 to 200 people of the Indian diaspora participated that day.
Due to that project, even though we had no Indian leaders in France, all the news channels were speaking about us, and Indian Flags was visible in all major channels. In fact, BBC and NDTV were showing live interviews of our volunteers who were there with placards showing India’s support to France against terrorism.
MARCH 2015 – CELEBRATING HOLI
Organized our Holi program by the bank of Seine River. It was the second year when Holi was celebrated in Paris on the same day as in India, and in both times we organized and promoted this event. This year, there were more than 300 people from different countries by the river enjoying our colourful festival.
Bishwajit Vicky Singh Mann is an important part of this project and in both times he gave the initial push.
MARCH 2015 – PROJECT LEARN SANSKRIT
Initiated a Sanskrit learning project where interested people can learn Sanskrit with the help of Suraj Krishna and Arjuna.
The project is still under development as he is looking for a fixed place where the classes can be held, and speaking with Universities in India who can give a certificate to the students once they finish their basic course.
APRIL 2015 – MODI JI’S VISIT TO PARIS
Modi Ji’s event was promoted in a big way in the community. In 4 days 1300 members filled up their form through this platform. The form promoted for this purpose was getting filled up in such rapid frequency that the 1st secretary of our embassy who was overseeing the event suggested me to close new subscriptions as the maximum limit of the hall was less than 3000 and he had to accommodate people coming from other associations.
Scroll.in spoke about our initiative in their article on Modi’s visit.
Later during the event, some 20 to 30 people of our group came to volunteer during the gala night, and who managed the evening of our Prime Minister along with security and embassy personnel.
APRIL 2015 – WEEKLY VIDEO DIGEST ON OUR COMMUNITY
Started a media project where video digest on the Indian community is to be released periodically. The first episode has been released where Modi Ji’s visit was highlighted, along with some of the problems that our students are facing in France. I am getting helped by Aranya Raj Singh in this project.
The project is under development and he is looking for sponsors to take it forward. The idea is to have a weekly half hourly bilingual (English and French) video journal on the Indian community of France
MAY 2015 – HELP NEPAL EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS
A donation platform was created for contributing to Nepal’s cause as the Indian community of France. This project had two goals :
1. To stand by Nepal as a community
2. To send this message to our Nepali friends that even Indians living in France are with them
Later, a cheque of the collected amount was submitted to Nepal’s Deputy Ambassador to France. The cheque was submitted in the name of the Indian community of France.
MAY 2015 – PROMOTING THE KIP PROGRAM
Started to promote the KIP program to our Diaspora. Three students have submitted their form so far. Through this program, Graduate students of Indian origin and with a foreign passport between 18 and 26 years are allowed an almost free tour to India for three weeks.
JUNE 2015 – COLLABORATING WITH THE EMBASSY FOR YOGA DAY
In collaboration with our embassy at different levels for organizing the Yoga day. About 40 people from our group have participated as volunteers during the event. He was also active in other things like finding sponsors and coordinated with VFS who donated some 500 yoga mats during the event.
2017-2018 INDIAN STUDENTS WELCOME PROGRAM
The community in collaboration with the Indian Embassy has started a new program to welcome the Indian students every year. 4 speakers including Sourav and Sanjay Kamath were the speakers at this program givinga student a basic idea of the life here.
OCT 2018 - FRENCH SPEAKING INSTITUTE FOR INDIANS.
In 2018, Sourav has started an exclusive Indian school for teaching French to the Indians here at very affordable prices. Its called Centre Zenith
FEBRUARY 2019 - PROTEST AT TROCADERO AGAINST TERRORIST ATTACKS IN INDIA
