In her 23 years as a foreign correspondent in South Asia, Vanessa Dougnac has spent most of it on the road. From solo horseback journeys in the Himalayas to retracing the footsteps of an 18th-century Tibetan princess in Ladakh and Nepal, the French journalist has always felt the subcontinent calling out to her.

When Vanessa Dougnac first came to India in 1998, it was just for a few months as an intern at the Alliance Fran?aise of Delhi. She was a PhD student in comparative literature at the University of Bordeaux and had wanted to take a break from her “lengthy studies”. Little did she know, India would end up becoming the place she’d call home.

“Over the course of a year, I taught French to Indian students, assisted in organising cultural activities, and travelled extensively throughout India by train and local bus – from the South to the Himalayas. I also explored Nepal and Bangladesh. It was a fascinating experience that changed my life,” Vanessa said in a conversation with Outlook. 

When Vanessa travelled back home to France on an Indian LML Vespa scooter, a three month adventure through India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, she found herself missing India. That is when she decided to come back.

“Everything just happened naturally. I enjoyed my life in India, filled with adventures, interactions, friendships and discoveries. Journalism became a way for me to explore the many facets of an incredibly complex subcontinent. As time passed, I felt truly at home in India.”

Vanessa is married to a Haryana man and together they have a son who “is fluent in French, Hindi, and English, and likes to claim he is 100 per cent Indian and 100 per cent French.”

Vanessa began her journey as a journalist in India in 2001 and is believed to be the longest-serving foreign correspondent in India. “Journalism immediately became a passion for me, and I acquired my journalistic skills in India. Indian journalists were the ones who taught me journalism. By the end of the 2000s, a brilliant generation of journalists was emerging in the dynamic landscape of the Indian and South Asian press,”

“They were brave and dedicated individuals, always seeking stories and information. I learned a lot from them. I felt a strong sense of belonging to this journalistic fraternity.”

Over the years Vanessa has covered stories emerging from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives, often travelling to many remote areas.

“My reportages were a way to capture the many facets of an incredibly complex subcontinent. In the last quarter of century, South Asia reassessed its central role on the international stage; I tried my best to reflect on the complexities of this evolution and its challenges. Over the years, I also developed a relationship with the French-speaking readership,” she said.

Vanessa Dougnac recently hit a roadblock when her working rights were revoked and she was given no reason or justification even after repeated requests. She was also advised to change her profession to which she said, “But I am a journalist, a profession that I hold dear to my heart, and I cannot agree to give it up because of unproven accusations.”

In January, Vanessa received a notice accusing her of writing articles that were "malicious", and harming "the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India". The notice, Vanessa said, required her to respond to why her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card should not be cancelled. And on February 16, Vanessa was forced to leave the country by the Indian authorities. Vanessa's case challenging the decision of the government is ongoing in the Indian courts.