• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly inaugurated India’s new consulate in France’s Marseille city.

• They also visited the historic Mazargues Cemetery to pay tribute to the Indian soldiers and other fallen heroes who made sacrifices fighting in the two World Wars.

• Marseilles was the base of Indian troops in France during the 1914-18 war. Throughout the war, the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy, British troops and Labour units worked in the port or passed through it. Four of the town cemeteries were used for the burial of officers and men of the Commonwealth forces who died at Marseilles. 

• A large number of Indian soldiers are commemorated in this war cemetery that is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).

• At a solemn ceremony held at the site, Modi laid a wreath composed of tricolour-themed flowers and Macron also laid a wreath.

• Paying homage to the soldiers who laid down their lives fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with their French counterparts during World War I and World II, Modi paid tribute with folded hands and a gentle bow at the iconic site that also has an Indian Memorial.

• Later, the two leaders took a walk on the premises of the cemetery and laid roses on memorial tablets installed on a wall inside a stone pavilion at the historic cemetery.

Indian Consulate in Marseille

• The two leaders jointly inaugurated the new Indian consulate in Marseille.

• The decision to open a consulate in Marseille was announced during PM Modi’s visit to France in July 2023. 

• The Consulate General will have consular jurisdiction over four French administrative regions in the South of France, namely — Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, Corsica, Occitanie and Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes.

• This region of France is synonymous with trade, industry, energy and luxury tourism and has significant economic, cultural and people to people connections with India. 

• The new Consulate General in the second most populous city in France would further strengthen the multi-faceted India-France Strategic Partnership.

PM Modi highlights Savarkar’s escape bid

• PM Modi also paid homage to the memory of freedom fighter V.D. Savarkar, who attempted a “courageous escape” at the port city.

• During British colonial rule, Savarkar had attempted an escape from captivity on July 8, 1910, while he was being transported on board the British ship Morea to India to stand trial. He is known to have slipped out of the ship’s porthole and managed to swim ashore before being captured by the French authorities and then handed back into the custody of the British ship authorities. It triggered a major diplomatic row as Savarkar went on to be sentenced to life imprisonment at Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

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