Final Frontiers by Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters

This is the first book-length study of the relationship between science fiction, the techno-scientific policies of independent India, and the global non-aligned movement that emerged as a response to the Cold War and decolonization. Today, we see the trend of science fiction writers being usedby governments as advisors on techno-scientific policies and defence industries. But such relationships between literature, policy and geo-politics have a long and complex history. Glimpses of this history can be seen in the case of the first generation of post-colonial Indian science fictionwriters, the policies of scientific and technological development in independent India, and the political strategy of non-alignment advocated by India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who proposed that Third World nations should maintain an equal distance between Washington and Moscow. Sucha perspective reveals the surprisingly long and relatively unknown life of Indian science fiction, as well as the critical role played by the genre in imagining alternative pathways for scientific and geo-political developments to those that dominate our lives now. | Final Frontiers by Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters