RESEARCH
Kalpavigyan: A Speculative Journey is based on original, archival research on Indian and Bangla kalpavigyan. Some key, relevant research publications on kalpavigyan from the larger CoFutures project are featured below.
The Inhumans and Other Stories
A Selection of Bengali Science Fiction
Edited and Translated by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
The MIT Press, 2024.
The first English translation of a cult science fiction favorite by Hemendra Kumar Roy, one of the giants of early Bangla literature, and other sf stories from the colonial period in India.
Translated into English for the first time, in this collection you’ll discover The Inhumans (1935), Hemendrakumar Roy’s satirical novella about a lost race of Bengali supermen in Uganda. Also included are Jagadananda Ray’s “Voyage to Venus” (1895), Nanigopal Majumdar’s “The Mystery of the Giant” (1931), and Manoranjan Bhattacharya’s “The Martian Purana” (1931). The volume also contains a detailed introduction and extensive annotations.
“The Inhumans represented a genuine moment of science fiction’s arrival in interwar Bengal—a region caught up in the brutality of imperial backlash against accelerating waves of enlightened self-determination.”
Anindita Banerjee, author of Science Fiction Circuits of the South and East
“This anthology of Bengali science fiction captures the timelessness of human speculation. The stories explore and interrogate many of the same questions we have today, and Chattopadhyay’s translation perfectly evokes the language of the Radium Era.”
S. B. Divya, Hugo- and Nebula-nominated author of Machinehood
“Studying how sci-fi themes were treated by Bengalis is a worthwhile academic pursuit…. Offers a valuable peek into genre history.”
Publishers Weekly
REVIEWS
Rachel Cordasco, Speculative Literature in Translation. March 2024.
Tobias Carroll in Words Without Borders. March 2024.
INTERVIEWS
Interview with Arley Sorg: “Globalised Literary Space: A Conversation with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay”. Clarkesworld Issue 210. March 2024.
Interview with Paul Semel. “Exclusive Interview: The Inhumans and Other Stories, editor/translator: Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay”. PaulSemel. PaulSemel.com. 14 March 2024.
Matti Braun
Edited by Matti Braun, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Beth Citron
Snoek, Kunstverein Heilbronn, 2020.
The publication presents Matti Braun’s artistic production of the last ten years. The book brings together texts by Parashuram, Santu Bag, Beth Citron, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Dip Ghosh, Ranen Ghosh, Soham Guha, Sudhir Kakar, Sami Ahmad Khan, Matthia Löbke, and Amrita Shah, highlighting the myriad interconnections of the work of Rabndranath Tagore, Vikram Sarabhai, Satyajit Ray, and Indian and Bengali science fiction.
Jagadish Chandra Bose. “Runaway Cyclone” (“The Missing One)
Translated and annotated by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
Strange Horizons, 30 September 2013
The first translation into English of a story first published in 1896 as “The Story of the Missing One”), and revised in 1921. The story is often regarded as the first work of science fiction from India. The version includes the later story, with annotations covering the original story and a discussion of differences.
The translation by Chattopadhyay has been reprinted several times, including:
- 2020. Reprint. . Ed. Ivy Roberts. McFarland.
- 2019. Reprint. Science Fiction in Colonial India, 1835-1905: Five Stories of Speculation, Resistance and Rebellion. Ed. Mary Ellis Gibson. Anthem Press.
- 2018. Reprint. Strange Worlds! Strange Times! Ed. V. Varma. Speaking Tiger.
- 2016. “The Missing One.” Edited reprint. Exhibition “The Missing One: Science Fiction from South Asia” catalogue. Office for Contemporary Art, Oslo, October 2016. 30-36.
- 2016. Reprint. Dharmasadhani. Hyderabad Deccan Brahmo Samaj Magazine. September 2016.
- 2013. Translation radio broadcast on “SF Radio,” CFRC-FM, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, read by Patrick Shorey. Dec 2013.