University of Wales Press Star Warriors of the Modern Raj: Materiality, Mythology and Technology of Indian Science Fiction (New Dimensions in Science Fiction)

India is mutating - and its Science Fiction (SF) with it. Star Warriors of the Modern Raj is a critical catalogue of contemporary India's anglophone SF, a path-breaking work that flits between texts, vantage points and frameworks. An alternative to a male Eurocentric perspective of SF, this study avoids essentialising definitions and delves into how the world of SF (text) intersects with that of the writer/reader. Fusing paradigms of Science Fiction Studies, South Asian Studies and Postcolonial Studies, among others, the book explicates how India and its SF negotiate one another. It evolves a 'transMIT thesis' to analyse how mythology (M), ideology (I) and technology (T) contour Indian SF and its fictional reimaginings. This study identifies the manifestations of divine beings within SF (as differing epistemological categories), locates the modes of marginalisation within Indian popular imagination (as altars of alterity), and then proceeds to analyse how newer technologies engage with socio-political anxieties in (and through) SF. Review Endorsements – Star Warriors ‘In Star Warriors of the Modern Raj, India, one of the most complex and diverse political cultures in the world system meets one of the most capacious and mutable artistic genres, science fiction. Sami Ahmad Khan’s book – the first major work devoted to contemporary Indian Science Fiction in English – makes two important contributions to the study of global SF. The first is an original and sophisticated theory tailored for SF in a country where science and myth interflow, and where caste, religion, language, and geopolitics affect every aspect of social life. The second is an exciting introduction to recent works by Anglophone Indian writers. Star Warriors of the Modern Raj is an invaluable addition to the growing scholarship on Indian science fiction that will be immensely useful for future work on emerging SF cultures.’ -Professor Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., DePauw University, co-editor of Science Fiction Studies ‘It’s hard to say whether Star Warriors of the Modern Raj does a better job of mapping western science fiction histories and theories onto Indian SF, or a better job of mapping histories and theories of Indian science fiction onto western SF – but the reciprocal relationships between these two traditions become fascinating in Khan’s hands. Khan brings a new generational as well as a new geographical vision to our understanding of the global and “possibly sentient” construct of the genre. What is easier still to say is that this valuable study, particularly in its focus on twenty-first century Indian SF in English, is always advanced by lively prose and a thought-provoking conceptualisation scheme that is often no less than breath-taking. In masterly readings, Khan’s encyclopedic approach systematically negotiates fraught and provocative conflicts in SF theory as it explores in both Indian and western SF issues – including bright and broken futures, post-colonial hangovers, Islamic and cyber terrorism, competing constructions of gender and cultural identity, representations of class and caste, impacts of environmental degradation, conflicts between science and religion, and the intersecting paradigms of mythology, ideology, and technology – intersections always at the heart of SF.’ -Professor Brooks Landon, University of Iowa ‘This is a lively introduction to a rich body of work: Indian Science Fiction in English. By aiming his book for readers new to SF, especially Indian SF, he opens up an exciting world accessible to a large audience. This will also be a valuable source for scholars and fans of SF, offering insight into the ways ISFE reveals and explores India in the present cultural and political climate.’ -Professor Emerita Joan Gordon, Nassau Community College, editor of Science Fiction Studies ‘In Star Warriors of the Modern Raj, Sami Ahmad Khan boldly creates the first comprehensive framework for twenty-first-century Angloph