The Inhumans and Other Stories A Selection of Bengali Science Fiction

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.

Kalpavigyan—science fiction written to excite Bengali speakers about science, as well as to persuade them to evolve beyond the limitations of religion, caste, and class—became popular in the early years of the twentieth century. 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).

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay is Associate Professor in Global Culture Studies at the University of Oslo. He is the leader of CoFUTURES, an international research group on contemporary futurisms headquartered in Oslo. He is a World Fantasy Award–winning editor, translator, writer, and critic of speculative fiction, and the producer of Kalpavigyan: A Speculative Journey, the first documentary film on Indian science fiction.

CONTENTS
Series Foreword ix
Introduction: Hemendrakumar Roy and Bangla SF in the Radium Age xv
Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

The Inhumans (1935) 1
Hemendrakumar Roy
1 The Hunter’s Heaven 1
2 The Night Guest 25
3 In the Lion’s Den 39
4 The Eyes in the Barrel 44
5 The Diary Begins 54
6 Sixteen Arms Long 57
7 The Kind Kamala 61
8 The History of the Juju Kingdom 64
9 The Human Egg 68
10 I Will Be a New Human 76
11 The Human Egg, Once Again 82
12 Looming Threats 87
13 Kamala’s Barrel 90
14 The Real Face of Bhomboldas 94
15 My Great Courage 96
16 The King’s Judgment 102
17 Exile 107

Voyage to Venus (1895) 111
Jagadananda Ray

The Mystery of the Giant (1931) 137
Nanigopal Majumdar
The Martian Purana (1931) 147
Manoranjan Bhattacharya
Notes 157