Speculative fiction’s big, bold statement
In a crisp January evening, the free community library at Masoodpur in South Extension transformed into a portal of another dimension. Writers, students, artists, and curious young minds gathered to witness the launch of The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste Speculative Fiction. Blaft Publications, known for unearthing literary gems that straddle the bizarre and the brilliant, has yet again delivered an anthology that transcends genres.
Their latest offering, an anthology of 32 speculative fiction stories edited by RT Samuel, Rakesh K and Rashmi RD, is no exception. But before you imagine a legion of aliens and shiny spaceships, let’s clarify: this isn’t your run-of-the-mill sci-fi collection. Co-editor RT Samuel, alongside five of the contributors—Yukti Narang, Snehashish Das, Esther Larisa David, Aswathy K Raj, and Rahee Punyashloka—introduced the eager audience to the collection that challenges not just the imagination but entrenched social hierarchies. The anthology features genres like magical realism, science fiction, horror, and translations from six languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, and Bengali.
Through the anti-caste lens
Speculative fiction thrives on imagination, with its settings, tropes, and themes offering infinite possibilities for challenging norms. Samuel, reflecting on the anthology’s genesis, emphasised its radical premise: “Speculative fiction, predicated on imagination, is inherently political. This book was conceived to fill a glaring gap in South Asian speculative fiction publishing. It is a labour of love, crowd-funded by hundreds of people globally.” His words set the stage for the evening’s discourse—a deep dive into the potential of speculative fiction to unsettle the status quo. “This is not a manifesto,” he clarified. “It’s a collection of really well-made fiction. But anti-casteism was imbued in every step of its creation—from fairly compensating writers and translators to ensuring a balance between seasoned writers and promising new voices. After all, holding space for fresh perspectives is integral to Ambedkarite thought.”
The stories disrupt familiar tropes, crafting an anti-caste counter-mythology that interrogates social hierarchies. For instance, Snehashish Das’ ‘Death of a Giant in a Godless Country’ reverses the process of myth-making. “India has a big history of speculative fiction—Brahminical mythology itself is speculative fiction, filled with giants and magic. My story creates a monstrous figure of the oppressors, reversing their own narratives. But unlike traditional myths, anti-caste fiction appeals to logic, reform, and hope,” they explained.
Esther Larisa David’s ‘Pruning Neurons’ delves into Khasi folklore, blending horror and artificial intelligence. “The genre allows us to question what we often take for granted,” she said. “My story lets me explore how tribal religious practices, specifically Christianity, intersect with modernity. Christianity is considered a colonial import, but that denies the agency of tribal people in adopting it.”
Yukti Narang’s story is a darkly humorous take on caste hierarchies, inspired by a real-life incident she encountered online. “One story I read was about a Brahmin family that wouldn’t let a wall painter enter through their kitchen, forcing him to climb through a neighbour’s balcony,” she explained. “From this idea, I created the character of a ‘glob’ figure as the main character. It is not a proper ghost; it could have been a chudail or any other kind of monster or devil. But with the glob, you don’t know what form it is, which is exactly like caste—baseless and amorphous.” The stories in the collection possess universal appeal. Narang comments, “I deliberately chose not to assign any specific location or singular cultural markers. It might feel Asian in some ways, but elements like food, the house, and the market don’t necessarily indicate which country it is. This allows the reader to imagine their own world,” Young writers, bold narratives
Aswathy K Raj’s ‘In the Extreme Silence of the Agrahara’ employs magical realism to depict caste slavery as an ongoing reality. “It’s about power dynamics,” she said. “Most refuse to believe caste slavery still exists. My story shows how the past and present collide.” Influenced by Gabriel García Márquez and Poykayil Appachan’s poetry, Aswathy blends personal history with Kerala’s socio-political nuances. Rahee Punyashloka, known online as Artedkar, delves into speculative alterity. His story ‘The RV Society for Promotion of Underground Sci-Fi Writings’ operates in the realm of historiographic metafiction. “My story imagines an alternate world where an anthology like this book doesn’t exist,” he explained. Drawing from anti-caste discourse on social media and the legacy of Rohith Vemula, Rahee explores speculative alterity as a form of resistance.
What humour does to hierarchies
Humour plays a pivotal role in several stories, turning hierarchies on their head. Das’ ‘Death of a Giant in a Godless Country’ imagines the pain of an upper-caste Brahmin boy mourning the perceived loss of his community’s privilege. “I’ve grown tired of writing about my own pain,” they admitted. “I wanted to examine the angst of those who feel ‘under threat.’” In their story, Biplab Dash, a Brahmin boy, wakes up at the Red Fort and encounters a giant—a figure born from caste anxieties. “The giant embodies the contradictions of Brahminical mythology,” Snehashish explained. “India’s mythology is speculative fiction. But Hindu myths are hopelessly cyclical, with villains doomed by birth. Anti-caste speculative fiction seeks a way out of this riddle, appealing to logic and reform.” Their story is a biting critique of populist slogans like Hindu khatre mein hai, using satire to dismantle the myths of upper-caste victimhood.
Graphic narratives, such as Sumit Kumar’s ‘Spacewali’, use wit to explore the absurdities of caste in outer space. Shivani Kshirsagar’s ‘This House is Never Clean’ examines casteist ideology behind domestic labour through a speculative lens. For Samuel and the contributors, the launch of The Blaft Book of Anti-Caste Speculative Fiction marked not an end, but a beginning. “This is the first book, but it won’t be the last,” Samuel promised. The anthology is a confluence of humour and heartbreak, myth and rationality, monsters and their makers. Each story challenges tropes and pushes boundaries, interrogating the role of the reader and daring them to imagine a world where the speculative meets the real.