Centre d'Etudes Sud-Asiatiques et Himalayennes - CESAH

📢 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | SOCIAL SCIENCES WINTER SCHOOL 2027

We are delighted to invite applications for the Social Sciences Winter School 2027, to be held from 1–5 February 2027 at the French Institute of Pondicherry.

This year’s theme is: Digitalisation and Development: Finance, Labour and Governance

Participants will work in three parallel groups, each bringing together 10–15 participants:

🔹 Working Group 1: Digital Finance
🔹 Working Group 2: Digitalisation & Governance
🔹 Working Group 3: Digital Labour

📅 Application deadline: 1 October 2026
📍 Venue: French Institute of Pondicherry
🗓️ Winter School: 1–5 February 2027
📧 Contact: winterschool [at] ifpindia [dot] org
🔗 Scan the QR code in the poster to access the application form.

📢 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | SOCIAL SCIENCES WINTER SCHOOL 2027

We are delighted to invite applications for the Social Sciences Winter School 2027, to be held from 1–5 February 2027 at the French Institute of Pondicherry.

This year’s theme is: Digitalisation and Development: Finance, Labour and Governance

The Winter School will bring together Master’s and PhD students and early-career scholars to critically examine how digitalisation is reshaping economies, institutions, work, and everyday life across South Asia.

Participants will work in three parallel groups, each bringing together 10–15 participants:

🔹 Working Group 1: Digital Finance
How are digital payments, app-based lending, algorithmic credit scoring and microfinance transforming household–market relations? This group will explore questions of financialisation, indebtedness, data extraction, financial inclusion and digital infrastructures through perspectives from Political Economy, STS, Behavioural Finance and innovative digital methods.

🔹 Working Group 2: Digitalisation & Governance
From digital welfare and GovTech to Aadhaar, surveillance and data infrastructures, this group examines how platforms and algorithms are transforming policy, bureaucracy and citizen–state relations. It will also explore Civic Tech, transparency, accountability and bottom-up mobilisations around data.

🔹 Working Group 3: Digital Labour
This group focuses on gig work, platform-based services, cloud work and data labour for AI. It seeks to develop integrated approaches to understanding digital labour in South Asia and is particularly suited to PhD and early-career researchers looking to critically engage with empirical material, including post-fieldwork research.

📝 We invite extended abstracts that are methodologically rigorous and theoretically innovative**, with particular attention to questions of gender, caste, class, migration and regional disparities in South Asia.

📅 Application deadline: 1 October 2026
📍 Venue: French Institute of Pondicherry
🗓️ Winter School: 1–5 February 2027
📧 Contact: winterschool [at] ifpindia [dot] org

🔗 Scan the QR code in the poster to access the application form.

Please share widely with students, researchers and colleagues who may be interested.



Umifre -Unités mixtes Instituts français de recherche à l'étranger- |Consulat général de France à Pondichéry et Chennai

As Margherita Trento, Head of Indology Department, concludes her time with us, we would like to thank her for her valuable contribution to our research community and wish her every success in the next chapter of her journey.

During her time at IFP, Margherita’s research has shed new light on the history of the Caiva cittāntam monastery (ātīṉam) of Thiruvavaduthurai, an institution founded in the 16th century and still active today. While the monastery is well known as the place where U. Ve. Swaminatha Iyer studied under the renowned Tamil scholar Minakshisundaram Pillai, its earlier history remains much less explored.

Through an exceptionally rich range of sources, including copperplate inscriptions, didactic and literary texts, paintings and sculptures, Margherita has investigated the monastery’s role in the religious, social and political worlds of South India between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Her work highlights the institution’s educational mission, its promotion of Tamil as a language of ritual and theological instruction, the patronage it received from different dynasties and social groups, and the extensive regional networks of temples administered by the ātīṉam.

We are grateful to Margherita for the scholarship, insight and intellectual energy she has brought to IFP, and for enriching our understanding of the religious and cultural history of South India.

Thank you, Margherita, and all the very best for what comes next!

How did India’s 3,695 ‘monuments of national importance’ come under state protection? Who authored their historical noticeboards? For whom—and against whom—was heritage preserved? To what extent did conservation serve the project of nation-building?

Preserving the Past, Building the Nation offers the first comprehensive history of heritage conservation policy in post-independence India, focusing on the role of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). It is the story of an ambitious generation of archaeologists trained in the waning hour of colonial rule, who set out to preserve the cultural heritage of a newly sovereign nation. The book details how a small number of experts shaped conservation as a scientific endeavour, sidelining its political and symbolic dimensions. State protection was enforced in a top-down manner, often in tension with local communities and religious practices. Chronic financial and bureaucratic constraints hindered forward-thinking reforms, perpetuating colonial legacies.

Drawing on an extensive study of ASI records, this book explores the bureaucratic machinery behind heritage management and the everyday work of ASI officers. It examines how decisions were made, implemented, and contested on the ground, and sheds light on alternative courses for Indian archaeology and conservation.

The author, Laurent Glattli is a historian specializing in contemporary South Asia, heritage studies, and postcolonial state formation. He holds a doctorate in South Asian Studies from Humboldt University of Berlin, awarded summa cm laude, for his research on heritage conservation policies in post-independence India.

His research work engages with historiography, identity narratives, and the bureaucratic dimensions of cultural policy. He teaches at Sciences Po and INALCO and is associated with the Centre for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CNRS-EHESS) in Paris. He has previously worked in the foreign policy sector in Delhi and Mumbai.

To procure a copy please click on the link given below:
https://primusbooks.com/modern-history/preserving-the-past-building-the-nation-a-history-of-heritage-conservation-policies-in-postcolonial-india-1944-1972-by-laurent-glattli/ #1516344244526-9f9b38e7-b5ac

Happy Reading!!

Prochaine projection de film 🍿

Ruke Na Jo (2025, 72min.) de Prateek Shekhar

En présence du réalisateur ainsi que d’une discutante : Stéphanie Tawa Lama (CNRS, Cesah)

📍 Campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers
🗓️ 23 juin | 17h30
🎟️ Entrée libre

L'agenda du Cesah du mois de juin !

Pour avoir toutes les informations (thèmes abordés, salles, etc.) c'est ici : https://swll.to/MYCuC

We are pleased to share an exciting opportunity for students interested in learning Hindi and Urdu.

Association des Jeunes Etudes Indiennes (AJEI) is pleased to support the Hindi–Urdu Intensive Summer School organised by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice by offering one scholarship covering the full course fee (€400) for the upcoming programme (31 August – 18 September 2026).

(https://ajei.hypotheses.org/)

This three-week programme is open to both beginners and advanced learners and provides immersive training in spoken and written Hindi and Urdu, along with a rich cultural programme.

Scholarship details:

One €400 grant (full tuition coverage)
Open to students applying to the summer school

How to apply:

1. Apply to the summer school programme > submitted online. (https://lnkd.in/efn-b-Fn )
2. Include a short statement outlining your motivation and purpose
3. Download the application and submit it to: [email protected]

Deadline: 30 June 2026

Important notes:

1. AJEI will select one eligible student for this scholarship
2. AJEI membership is mandatory (https://lnkd.in/egY2tr6Q)
3. The selected candidate must attend the programme in person
4. Accommodation is not covered and must be arranged independently by the student. (Affordable accommodation is available for students (in twin rooms) during the Summer School period. We invite participants to visit the following link for the San Francesco Student Residence for further information and bookings:
https://lnkd.in/e-NxwimJ)

We strongly encourage interested students to apply and take advantage of this unique opportunity to study in Venice while deepening their engagement with South Asian languages and cultures.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

L'agenda du Cesah du mois de mai est disponible

Pour avoir toutes les informations (thèmes abordés, salles, etc.) c'est ici : https://swll.to/KhLeC23