About ICAS:MP
The M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies ‘Metamorphoses of the Political’ (ICAS:MP) is an Indo-German research collaboration of six Indian and German institutions funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2015 as one of their Maria Sibylla Merian Centres.
Call for Applications- ICAS:MP advertises multiple Short- Term Fellowships for the academic year July 2023- June 2024 (Closing date: 30 September 2022)
The M.S. Merian – R. Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies “Metamorphoses of the Political: Comparative Perspectives on the Long Twentieth Century” (ICAS:MP), a project under the aegis of the Max Weber Stiftung India Branch Office, advertises multiple fellowships for the academic year July 2023-June 2024.
TM 2 Workshop: Time and Space of Railways- Markets, Work, and Circulation in South Asia

An international workshop in honour of Ian J. Kerr. This workshop explores new directions of research into the social, economic, temporal, and spatial histories of South Asian railways. It is organised by M.S. Merian — R. Tagore International Centre for Advanced Studies “Metamorphoses of the Political” (ICAS:MP), Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient Berlin and Association of Indian Labour Historians.
TM 6 Workshop: Green Finance and the Global South – Money and Nature

Money and Nature: questioning and reflecting on the global fragmented financialised mobilisation of capital for ecological good”: This workshop aims to develop a framework for research that question the democratic legitimacy and cognitive credentials of the evolving technocratic and market mobilisation of global finance to govern the world’s economic resources towards an ecologically desirable socio-economic system where geopolitical interests diverge, especially between the “North” and the “Global South.”
Launch of ICAS:MP Cambridge University Press (CUP) Series with books by Shail Mayaram, Sebastian Schwecke and Sushmita Pati

ICAS:MP’s CUP series, Metamorphoses of the Political: Multidisciplinary Approaches, seeks to publish new books that both expand and de-centre current perspectives on politics and the ‘political’ in the contemporary world. We published the following three books with CUP: Shail Mayaram: The Secret Life of anOther Indian Nationalism: Transitions from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana , Sebastian Schwecke: Debt, Trust, and Reputation. Extra-legal Finance in Northern India and Sushmita Pati: Properties of Rent: Community, Capital and Politics in Globalising Delhi
Open access book release: Media and the Constitution of the Political: South Asia and Beyond
We are thrilled to introduce our latest edited media volume with Sage, titled: Media and the Constitution of the Political: South Asia and Beyond. This volume features the writings of leading media scholars from South Asia and Europe on the topic of how media articulates political energies and transformational logics. The editor is Ravi Vasudevan.
Open access book release: Wage Earners in India 1500-1900: Regional Approaches in an International Context
We are delighted to reveal our next edited volume in our ICAS:MP Sage Series : “Politics and Society in India and the Global South“. The book is titled: Wage Earners in India 1500-1900: Regional Approaches in an International Context. The editors are: Jan Lucassen and Radhika Seshan.
Open access book release: Discourses on Corruption: Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Perspectives
We are pleased to announce the release of the latest edited volume in our ICAS:MP Sage Series : “Politics and Society in India and the Global South“. The book is titled: Discourses on Corruption: Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Perspectives. The editors are members of our thematic module on Normative Conflicts and Transformations: Kalpana Kannabiran, Florian Hoffmann and Bettina Hollstein.
CSDS – Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies Special Issue with contributions from ICAS:MP members
ICAS:MP module members have contributed towards the special issue of Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies which is a screen media research journal for the South Asian region brought out by Sarai project of CSDS in collaboration with the University of Westminster, London. This special issue, called “The Keywords Issue”, will be available in a few days as open access for a 60 day period.
Latest Media
Launch of Cordial Cold War: Cultural Actors in India and the GDR by Anandita Bajpai
ICAS:MP launched Open Access book under the Sage Series – Politics and Society in India and the Global South edited by Anandita Bajpai. Ravi Vasudevan and Ravikant were the discussants.
ICAS:MP Special Lecture by Faisal Devji on ‘The Childhood of Politics’
On 20 October 2020, Professor Faisal Devji (Oxford) gave a lecture on ‘The Childhood of Politics’, which was a part of our ‘Special Lecture’ series. Professor Mary E John (Former IAB Chairperson, TM 5 Member) was the discussant.
Dialogue with Charles Taylor, Hartmut Rosa and Rajeev Bhargava
ICAS:MP launched a new series of virtual talks titled ‘ICAS:MP Dialogues’.
The kick-off was on 8 February 2021 with Charles Taylor, Hartmut Rosa and Rajeev Bhargava on the topic: Deep Diversity in Politics, Religion and Selfhood – And a Shared Sense of Belonging.