The history of Indian science fiction
4 days ago
- #Postcolonial Literature
- #Feminist Utopia
- #Science Fiction
- Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's 'Sultana’s Dream' (1905) is considered one of the first significant works of Indian science fiction in English.
- The story introduces 'Ladyland,' a feminist utopia where gender roles are reversed, critiquing patriarchal structures through defamiliarization.
- Rokeya’s work predates and parallels later feminist SF like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 'Herland' and Ursula Le Guin’s explorations of gender.
- Early Indian SF (e.g., Bengali 'kalpavigyan') blended science with local narratives, often written by scientists like Jagdish Chandra Bose.
- Post-Independence, Indian SF in regional languages (e.g., Satyajit Ray’s Professor Shonku) remained siloed from global SF trends.
- Contemporary Indian SF (e.g., Samit Basu’s 'GameWorld Trilogy') embraces hybridity, merging global genre tropes with Indian cultural elements.
- Recent works (e.g., 'The Gollancz Anthology of South Asian SF') explore themes like tech inequality, climate change, and caste violence.
- The 'Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF' (2024) marks a pivotal shift, centering Dalit-Bahujan voices in speculative fiction.
- Indian SF’s evolution reflects a tension between national identity and universalist aspirations, with growing global recognition.