Added all of these to my Goodreads -- as an Indian, I had no idea that these books existed. Great article (with some really cool UI choices); I'm looking forward to reading more from this magazine! Thanks for sharing.
Ditto... several titles they listed were alien to me! And I had no idea about Rokeya.
Alas, these will have to wait a bit until my next book-funding cycle... I accidentally overdid some Diwali discount book shopping and have a slushpile of about forty scifi titles to work through, and a fiscal deficit to repair :sweat-smile: :D
That said, my extant slushpile has Sci-Fi by contemporary Indian / Indian-origin authors...
Lavanya Lakshminarayan's Interstellar Megachef (next up in the reading Q, along with the Strugatsky brothers).
And SB Divya's books:
Read and enjoyed and will recommend:
- Meru (very cool embodiment of beings, mythologically-inspired)
To-read:
- Loka
- Machinehood
- Contingency plans for the apocalypse
I can second the article's recommendation of Samit Basu, I've liked everything of his I've read. I would also recommend Indra Das, and Saad Z. Hossain.
She is also read well in Bangladesh because she wrote primarily in Bengali. Infact she was well versed in quite a few languages. Her Sultana's Dream is a little over the top though
That's true. Bose is also the source of Marconi's radio component and he developed junction based electronics way before it's time. Bose was quite fiercely anti-patent. Marconi patented the coherer in his name.
It is only recently that Bose's contributions in radio and electronics are being acknowledged (colonialism doing what it does) although these were quite well known in Bengal.
Probably worth drawing this thread's attention to the debate over whether ancient Hindu texts mention nuclear weapons and atomic war. Up to the beholder whether that makes those texts sci-fi or not, I guess.
It's true that ancient Indians had some interesting insights into astronomy and natural sciences (recognizing the heliocentricity as early as the aitareya BrAhmaNa, and some ideas about electricity) and have some evidence about Indo-Aryan warfare being evolved with variety of weapons.
But it would sound like boomer uncles to claim that there is mention of space travel or nuclear weapons in our epics. The astra-s are simply figments of imagination.
Every great culture, over the millennia has imagined great weapons and unlimited godlike destructive power. You could, as you are doing now, retrofit our narrative on any of those if you wish. Make your own sci-fi fantasy. Those texts are not.
This is an interesting article but unfortunately there's some brigading of this thread by new accounts that's leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
"the sultana's dream" is online, and well worth a read: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream....
Added all of these to my Goodreads -- as an Indian, I had no idea that these books existed. Great article (with some really cool UI choices); I'm looking forward to reading more from this magazine! Thanks for sharing.
Ditto... several titles they listed were alien to me! And I had no idea about Rokeya.
Alas, these will have to wait a bit until my next book-funding cycle... I accidentally overdid some Diwali discount book shopping and have a slushpile of about forty scifi titles to work through, and a fiscal deficit to repair :sweat-smile: :D
That said, my extant slushpile has Sci-Fi by contemporary Indian / Indian-origin authors...
Lavanya Lakshminarayan's Interstellar Megachef (next up in the reading Q, along with the Strugatsky brothers).
And SB Divya's books:
I can second the article's recommendation of Samit Basu, I've liked everything of his I've read. I would also recommend Indra Das, and Saad Z. Hossain.
She is also read well in Bangladesh because she wrote primarily in Bengali. Infact she was well versed in quite a few languages. Her Sultana's Dream is a little over the top though
And also because she was from what is now Bangladesh. Same with Bose from this list.
That's true. Bose is also the source of Marconi's radio component and he developed junction based electronics way before it's time. Bose was quite fiercely anti-patent. Marconi patented the coherer in his name.
It is only recently that Bose's contributions in radio and electronics are being acknowledged (colonialism doing what it does) although these were quite well known in Bengal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose#Microwav...
Bookmarked to read tonight, thanks for this -- the site is gorgeous.
Probably worth drawing this thread's attention to the debate over whether ancient Hindu texts mention nuclear weapons and atomic war. Up to the beholder whether that makes those texts sci-fi or not, I guess.
It's true that ancient Indians had some interesting insights into astronomy and natural sciences (recognizing the heliocentricity as early as the aitareya BrAhmaNa, and some ideas about electricity) and have some evidence about Indo-Aryan warfare being evolved with variety of weapons.
But it would sound like boomer uncles to claim that there is mention of space travel or nuclear weapons in our epics. The astra-s are simply figments of imagination.
Every great culture, over the millennia has imagined great weapons and unlimited godlike destructive power. You could, as you are doing now, retrofit our narrative on any of those if you wish. Make your own sci-fi fantasy. Those texts are not.
Example:
Gotham Chopra did that with what is now Virgin Comics: https://liquidcomics.com/
See the gorgeous Ramayan 3392 A.D. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayan_3392_A.D.
Also see the film Cargo, which turns mythological narrative into a rather watchable space opera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_(2019_film)
I’d say that’s more fantasy than science fiction.
Seems like it's the first article of this magazine. I'd be excited to see what else they work on but I don't see any links to an rss feed :(
here's a list of future articles we are looking to commission btw: https://altermag.com/pitch-us
there's limited mention of satyajit ray and his feud with spielberg a la Aliens. would have been fun to read about it-- https://harpercollins.co.in/product/embark-on-an-intergalact...
Heyo, Great article. Gautam Bhatia is a great science fiction writer himself.
What a beautiful site.
Gorgeous essay. Less a story and more a museum tour of Indian Sci-Fi. Enjoyed it!
All the hard work put into this piece really shows! It’s just fascinating.
What a beautifully designed and insightful piece!
Very interesting visual effect in the first sections of the article
what an enlightening and inspiring deep-dive that celebrates the bold emergence and evolution of Indian science fiction.
Loved the article!
this looks like India's answer to Works In Progress
They reference Works in Progress in their "pitch us" page: https://altermag.com/pitch-us
Though I wouldn't say "India's answer to..." that's just lazy hyperbole. Give the magazine's makers credit, not some arbitrary national identity.
Works In Progress is a Stripe production. Alter Magazine is a production by a parent company "Alt Carbon". That's the similarity.
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Well yes I have read Zelazny's Lord of Light, how did you like it? /s
Should we not start with Ramayana and Mahabartham? Although they are religious texts they had a lot of science fiction storylines.
More mythological than science fiction.