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Postcoloniality, Science Fiction and India Suparno Banerjee Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Banerjee [email protected]

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Postcoloniality, Science Fiction and India Suparno Banerjee Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Banerjee Toton@Yahoo.Com Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2010 Other tomorrows: postcoloniality, science fiction and India Suparno Banerjee Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Banerjee, Suparno, "Other tomorrows: postcoloniality, science fiction and India" (2010). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3181. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3181 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. OTHER TOMORROWS: POSTCOLONIALITY, SCIENCE FICTION AND INDIA A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In The Department of English By Suparno Banerjee B. A., Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, 2000 M. A., Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, 2002 August 2010 ©Copyright 2010 Suparno Banerjee All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My dissertation would not have been possible without the constant support of my professors, peers, friends and family. Both my supervisors, Dr. Pallavi Rastogi and Dr. Carl Freedman, guided the committee proficiently and helped me maintain a steady progress towards completion. Dr. Rastogi provided useful insights into the field of postcolonial studies, while Dr. Freedman shared his invaluable knowledge of science fiction. Without Dr. Robin Roberts I would not have become aware of the immensely powerful tradition of feminist science fiction. I am also indebted to all of them for their timely feedback on my dissertation and help in improving my writing. I am thankful to Dr. Gregory Stone for serving as my minor professor (in Comparative Literature). I benefitted hugely from his course in modern literary theory, and still consider it as one of the best and most challenging classes I took at LSU. I am grateful to Dr. Irvine Peckham for his support during my early days at LSU and to Dr. Malcolm Richardson for molding me as an effective instructor. I want to thank Dr. Daniel Novak for his constructive criticisms, which helped in shaping out the exact focus of my dissertation; and this is besides his constant support during the difficult job hunt process. I deeply appreciate Dr. Areendam Chanda’s taking time out of his busy schedule to act as my foreign language examiner and Dr Sharon Weltman’s gracious consent to join my committee at the last minute. Their help smoothed the path for the completion of my degree. I greatly value the responses I received from many of the authors included in my dissertation. Ian McDonald and Priya Sarukkai Chabria promptly responded to my emails with insightful comments and Rimi B. Chatterjee granted me an hour long personal interview. I truly appreciate their gestures. I iii am also indebted to Brian Attebery (the editor of Journal the Fantastic in the Arts ), Ericka Hoagland, Reema Sarwal (editors of Science Fiction, Imperialism, and the Third World: Essays in Literature and Film ) and Amy Donley of McFarland for granting permissions to reprint the essays published in their respective journal and anthology in my dissertation. I am grateful to my professors at Visva-Bharati and to Samantak Das (who is no longer working there), for training me well enough to succeed at higher levels. A big thank you is due to my peers and friends at LSU and in Baton Rouge for making my stay in the city and going through the process of writing enjoyable, but especially to Tom Halloran for constantly helping me navigate graduate student life in a new country. Thanks also to my soccer pals for helping me get through the week in the hope of another game at the weekend. I am indebted to my parents, Subir and Haimanti Banerjee, and my family members for helping me become the person I am today. Special thanks to my uncles Himadri and Partha Lahiri for encouraging me to publish my works and for pushing me to come to the USA for graduate studies. I am also thankful to my wife, Debangana, who has been by my side all through this time. She quit her budding career in India to stay with me. She kept me sane for the last five years! I am grateful to my grandfather, Prabhatmohan Banerjee, who imparted a wealth of knowledge to me in my childhood, the value of which I realized only while writing this dissertation. I also acknowledge his legacy of resistance against colonial oppression. And, lastly, I am indebted to the Russian author Yuri Medvedev: his book The Chariot of Time inspired me to believe that science fiction is the genre that can truly unravel the deepest secrets of nature, both human and external. iv CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..……………………………………………………………………….iii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………...............vi INTRODUCTION SCIENCE FICTION, POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES AND INDIA………………………………....1 CHAPTER I INDIAN SCIENCE FICTION: A HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE...………......25 CHAPTER II MAPPING TOMORROWS: FUTURISTIC DISCOURSES IN ANGLOPHONE INDIAN SCIENCE FICTION………………………………………………………………………………..60 Silent Subversion: Counter-Science and Subaltern Discourse in The Calcutta Chromosome ………………………………………………………………...…..................60 Alternative Dystopia: Science, Power and Fundamentalism in Signal Red ………………..79 The Last Jet-Engine Laugh : Disillusionment and the Postcolonial Nation………...............98 Future beyond the Nation-State: Strategies of Postnationalist Indian Science Fiction in Generation 14.……………………………………………...................116 Native Aliens: the Politics of Reconciliation in Of Love and Other Monsters and Distances ………………………………………………………..................................134 CHAPTER III AUTHORING SOMEONE ELSE’S FUTURUE: DEPICTIONS OF INDIA IN ANGLO- AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION……………………………………………………………….155 Reworking of Hinduism in Lord of Light …………………………………………………160 Shiva 3000 and the India Eternal………………..………………………………………...167 Cybernetic Divinities and a Split India in River of Gods and Cyberabad Days ………….177 India and the Bomb: Doomsday Scenario of the Twenty-First Century in Dragon Fire....………………………………..…………………………………………...190 CONCLUSION POSTCOLONIALITY, SCIENCE FICTION AND INDIA ………..……………………………200 WORKS CONSULTED…...……………………………………………………………………...212 APPENDIX: PERMISSIONS…………………………………………………………………….226 VITA……………………………………………………………………………………................228 v ABSTRACT In this dissertation I argue that science fiction as a genre intervenes in the history-oriented discourse of postcolonial Anglophone Indian literature and refocuses attention on the nation’s future—its position in global politics, its shifting religious and social values, its rapid industrialization, the clash between orthodoxy and modernity, and ultimately the dream of a multicultural nation. Anglophone Indian science fiction also indicates India’s movement away from a nation trying to negotiate the stigma of colonialism to a nation emerging as a new world power. Thus, this genre reconstructs the Indian identity not only in the domestic sphere, but also in a global context. Reading these works (e.g. by Amitav Ghosh, Ruchir Joshi, Vandana Singh etc.) alongside postcolonial and science fiction theory, I also explore how these texts theorize the intersection of Western and Indian traditions, as well as indigenism and hybridity. I argue science fiction as a genre enables a synthesis of these clashing tendencies in a new way, which projects Indian futures marked by cultural hybridity and, often, exhibits critical and premonitory qualities. Together with the Indian works I also read a number of Anglo-American science fictions about India (e.g. works by Roger Zelazny and Ian McDonald among others) to examine Western ideas about Indian future and how they differ from the Indian texts. Although some of these works try to understand the complex socio-cultural dynamics of India while writing its future, most of the time they impose the Western stereotypes of the Orient. Because of this still persisting Orientalist attitude, I conclude that Anglophone Indian science fiction is the genre that can best project the Indian future in an authentic manner. It can synthesize both Indian and Western cultural influences in a futuristic scenario, while eschewing the bias that Western science fictions exhibit towards India; and at the same time this genre can break free of the historical burden characterizing such reclamatory effort in realistic postcolonial discourse. vi INTRODUCTION SCIENCE FICTION, POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES AND INDIA Although Indian writing in English has always been an important part of postcolonial literary discourse, India’s emergence as a legitimate world power over the last thirty or so years has seen a surging interest about the genre in the Anglophone world. Extensive studies have been done on Indian fiction in English. However, the focus of these studies has mostly been fixed on realistic or mimetic fictions and their social, political and cultural implications, or stylistic aspects of the texts (especially in case of magic realist works).1 One strand of literature which has been neglected by scholars from deserved scrutiny is
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