A squandering of imagination

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Tomorrow, 14th April, is Ambedkar Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar. There has been an increasing anti-caste cultural resurgence in art, film, literature, music and more, in recent years. And it is also an excellent time to celebrate again the extraordinary, forward-looking book, The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF, published by Blaft Publications Pvt Ltd, that is surely a landmark in Indian literary history (R995, 2024). In its futurist, science fiction approach, it links, in a way, to the legacy of Afro-Futurism, an idea I first encountered at the Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room at the Met, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2021. Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience, connecting the black diaspora with their African ancestry, and often reclaiming power and supremacy. This powerful concept has inspired films like Marvel's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Woman King; a slew of art, books, comics and more.

The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste SF is an anthology of "weird, fantastic, supernatural, Dalit futurist and magical realist fiction by writers from South Asia and the diaspora," as the blurb describes it. It is edited by RT Samuel, Rakesh K and Rashmi RD. RT Samuel observes in his introduction how mainstream science fiction/speculative fiction overlooking marginalised voices, has led to a "squandering of imagination." He notes that there is a "bubbling countercultural renaissance," adding that "speculative fiction is about more than just a good story; it's a powerful way to think critically and ask important questions about our world."

The book offers a superb selection of authors, mainly marginalized voices--minorities, caste-oppressed and indigenous writers; and with superb English translations from Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali. The writing is exciting, brimming with staggering imagination and sci-fi, and wild doses of humour. It includes writing by veterans and newbies, including Bama Faustina Soosairaj (translated by Meena Kandasamy), Tamil Magan, New York-based Mimi Mondal, Gouri, Hameedha Khan, Gogu Shyamala, Esther David, Aswathy K Raj, Rashmi Ruth Devadasan, Gitanjali Joshua, Gautamiputra Kamble, PA Uthaman, V Chandrasekhar Rao, Rahee Punyashloka, Nabi H Ali, Subash Thebe Limbu (an indigenous artist from Nepal), and savage satire by the amazing Sumit Kumar of Bakarmax comics fame.

There is so much exciting writing here, so I'll start with some of the women writers first - as women are usually pushed into the background-- and discuss the male writers subsequently.

Among the most delicious is Rashmi Ruth Devadasan's Meen Matters (she' s also one of the editors), with lashings of wicked humour, and a fine eye and ear for Tamil cultural detail. It features Baby, Manju and Vijaya, born on December 12, 2016 during Cyclone Vardah, when the world became infected. Tamil warrior girls fight zombies, in the war of the living dead v/s undead. Baby wears a short-bladed aruvaal on a leather belt; Manju's "skin glistened like pure Tirunelveli halwa," and Vijaya was "the deep rich brown of chukku coffee." In a face-off, LP (Loud Paneer aka Vasanth) greeted the girls with a "Vanakam bitchezzz," to which Baby replied, "Hello, perchali poolu." Bandicoot d''k. Elsewhere is the line, "‘Life, death, decay…and now zombies,' one extra thing the gods have given us," Anbu pontificated, like a post-apocalyptic Deepak Chopra." I fell off my chair laughing. After a successful coup, the girls get their reward: "dull gold bars imprinted with the stamp of a seer fish - a vanjaram… each was the size of a bar of LifebuoyTM soap." All this is begging to be made into a futurist feminist thriller forthwith. Karthik Subbaraj, thou shouldst be here at this hour, when most needed.

Bama writes evocatively of the Korali ghost; Gouri contributes wrenching queer fiction; Hameedha Khan's amazing science fiction does extraordinary world building, set in the forests of the Western Ghats; Mimi Mondal writes an explosive, searing piece on a Dalit-savarna couple who settle overseas, but deep-rooted traumas remain. Tamil Magan writes a jaw-dropping science-futurist piece on a rice farmer engineered to become a tree. It has stunning cover illustrations by Priyanka Paul. All of this is so rich!

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com