Decolonising sci-fi and fantasy books | South Asian authors share notes on reclaiming literature

South Asian authors are reclaiming science fiction and fantasy genres. They write books set in their own countries, featuring customs and characters that are true to their life experiences. Works by Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Samit Basu, Saad Z. Hossain, Usman T. Malik, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Vajra Chandrasekera, Tashan Mehta, Prashanth Srivatsa, Bina Shah, and Kritika H. Rao are changing the publishing landscape. They offer authentic South Asian stories, allowing readers to explore varied topics with a South Asian flavour. #SouthAsianAuthors reclaim stories Tolkien's classic The Hobbit is a favourite but not without its problems. Works by Lakshminarayan, Basu, Hossain, Malik, Wijeratne, Chandrasekera, Mehta, Srivatsa, Shah, Rao offer authentic stories. #ReclaimStories

The first fantasy book I remember reading is Tolkien’s classic The Hobbit. Dragons, magic, dwarves, elves, kings, battles — there wasn’t much I didn’t love about it. It set me on a path to reading every kind of fantastical, weird and wonderful piece of literature I could find. It’s an experience many writers in South Asia identify with, something I realised when I interviewed them on my podcast, Arcx (for Dark ’n’ Light ezine).

Reading Tolkien years later, even as a fan, is a different experience. These days I’m cognisant that the father of modern fantasy literature had some fairly skewed views about race. It’s also hard to ignore that The Lord of the Rings featured only three prominent female characters.

Interrogating literature that you grew up consuming is an important part of being a storyteller. And as a result, many South Asian authors have been inspired to write books set in their own countries, featuring customs and characters that are true to their life experiences. For many of us, decolonisation is an ongoing process, and it is increasingly apparent that the reclamation of stories is a big part of that.

Bengaluru-based writer Lavanya Lakshminarayan too cites Tolkien as an early influence. The Hobbit prompted her first attempts at storytelling. She says, “I talk about The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in glowing colours because of the sense of wonder and profound impact they had on me in my formative years. Having said that, there are huge gaps in these works.”

So, while she still appreciates Tolkien’s work, it’s worth noting that Lakshminarayan’s own debut novel, Analog/Virtual: And Other Simulations of Your Future (2020), published internationally as The Ten Percent Thief in 2022, is set in Bengaluru of the future, with a cast of characters that are immediately recognisable to anyone who has lived in an Indian metro, or in the Silicon Valley of the South, in particular. This interconnected series of stories explores difficult topics such as abortion, fascism, the toxicity of hustle culture, the invasive reach of technology, and the creeping devastation of climate change.

Another of Lakshminarayan’s influences is Samit Basu. One of India’s best-known contemporary science fiction and fantasy authors, Basu published his first book, The Simoqin Prophecies, in his early 20s, and his 2020 book Chosen Spirits, published internationally as The City Inside, garnered plenty of interest from readers and critics alike. Set in Delhi of the near future, Chosen Spirits gives us a glimpse of a grim but believable future, which is not so much dystopia but a capitalist fever dream filled with social media influencers, oligarchies, fascist uncles, underground revolutions, and the stark realities afforded by class and privilege.

Says Basu, “A lot of western or further-eastern hero literature usually comes from people who are writing from a completely safe space where they think that systems work, where they don’t have anyone to take care of, where the consequences of their actions are all along a very individual prism.”