Catastrophe, Colonialism, and (Science) Communication in Indian Science Fiction

Indian science fiction (sf)—especially its variants written by Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (JVN), a prominent scientist and an eminent Marathi sf author—popularizes science in India and comments on a developing, heterogenous society within which science and fiction operate. This article identifies how two stories by JVN—“The Adventure” and “The Comet,” both of which are/were prescribed in India’s school syllabus—engage with genre sf, communicate complex scientific theories to a general audience, and foreground the divergent anticolonial praxis of Indian sf. It proceeds along three nodes: JVN as a scientist-author vis-à-vis Indian sf; scientific concepts in the selected texts and the overall positioning of science in India; and the entanglements between mythology, ideology, and technology within Indian sf—which constitutes the focal point for the readings.