Time to trigger desi-hued extraterrestrial imaginings

Mars, like other planets and outer space, has been populated by the imagination of writers and readers of space-faring countries. Even before the advent of the Space Age that started in earnest in the 1950s fuelled by the Cold War, this science fictional landscape was a romping ground in mostly American, Russian and British popular culture. It remains so till this day. Even for Indian science fiction readers, it is well nigh impossible to take an SF story seriously if the characters are called, say, Mukundan or Sharmila. Essentially, without White People, speculative depictions seem ‘inauthentic’ to us. With India’s Mars Orbiter Mission keenly followed by the whole country as it entered Martian orbit today, this could be the perfect moment for an indigenous in-yourface technological breakthrough to trigger desi-hued extraterrestrial imaginings.

Some imaginary Indians have already been ‘up there’. Premendra Mitra’s raconteur-hero Ghanashyam Das a.k.a. Ghana-da even leaves behind a fellow Bengali on Mars in a 1940s novel to bring an end to a civil war fought between Martians — whose population comprises solely of females. Apart from technology, let Mangalyaan also unlock an age in which we create and enjoy SF made according to our own image and can hold itself solely by the strength of the tales.