South asian futurisms

Names

• South Asian Futurism
• South Asian Futurisms
• Can overlap with or be a rejection of cultural and ethno-geographical futurisms in South Asia like Desifuturism, Indofuturism, Pakistani Futurism, Sri Lankan Futurism, Sikh Futurism, Muslim Futurism, Hindu Futurism, Vedic Futurism and more
• Can overlap with Indigenous Futurisms, Adivasi Futurisms, Dalit Futurisms, Tamil/Tamizh Futurisms, Queer Futurisms and more
• Can overlap with South Asian Separatist Futurisms like Khalistan Futurisms and more

Artists and Creators

• Saks Afridi (US)
• Prayaag Akbar
• Mohammad Khalid Akhtar
• Qasim Anwar (US)
• Maya Arulpragasam aka MIA (SL-UK-IN)
• Nag Aswhin (IN)
• Kai (Kari) Altmann aka Hitashya (US-IN)
• Bloni Atelier (Akshat Bansal) (UK-IN)
• Samit Basu
• Vimal Chandran (IN)
• Vajra Chandrasekera
• S. B. Divya
• Haris Durrani
• Amitav Ghosh
• Omar Gilani (PK-UK)
• Varun Gupta (IN)
• Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
• Saad Z. Hossain
• Akanskha Jain
• Subash Thebe Limbu (NP)
• Sam Madhu (IN-DE)
• Usman T. Malik
• Mary Anne Mohranraj
• Manjula Padmanabhan
• Rajni Perera
• Vijay Prashad
• Svetha Yallapragada Rao aka Raja Kumari (US-IN)
• Bhavya Ramesh (IN)
• Satyajit Ray
• Tarun K. Saint
• Kinnari Saraiya (IN-UK)
• Bina Shah
• Vandana Singh
• Himali Singh Soin
• Osheen Siva (IN)
• The Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun) (UK)
• Vandana Shiva (IN)
• Bishakh Som
• Shilo Shiv Suleman
• Sony Thokchom (IN)
• Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Curators and Theorists

• Puruesh Chaudhary
• Ryan A D'Souza
• Zafra Khalid
• Saddaf Padder (US)
• Pravin Pillay
• Priteegandha Naik
• Priyanka Bandodkar

Events

• KALAK, Roundhouse London, March 10-12 2023. Curated by Sarathy Kolwar.
• South Asian Solarpunk, PanPan, Birmingham, May 15 2024. Programmed by Radical Exhibition Collective.

Discussions and Panels

• "Magical Women and the Blossoming of Indian Speculative Fiction", Bangalore International Centre, June 21 2019. Speakers: Sukanya Venkatraghavan, Shreya Ila Anasuya, Samhita Arni, T. Gautham Shenoy.

• "Remixing ancient culture with contemporary futurism", TEDx Talk by Sam Madhu at TEDxSIUHinjewadi, January 2020.

• "South Asian Science Fiction: Tarun K. Saint, Vandana Singh and Manjula Padmanabhan in conversation with Arunava Sinha", Jaipur Lit Fest, Jaipur India, 2022.

• "Exploring South Asian Futurisms: A Conversation with Sadaf Padder, Curator", Hyperallergic, Online, March 28 2023. Speakers: Hrag Vartanian, Sadaf Padder.

• "XLE.LIFE presents XLE.LIVE: #Indofuturism? #Desifuturism?", XLE.LIFE, Online, Mumbai, Zurich, April 2023. Speakers: Kai (Kari) Altmann, Prateek Arora, Naveen Shamsudhin. Curated and Moderated by Kai (Kari) Altmann.

• "Beyond Borders: Interrograting South Asia Through Visual Culture", Asia Society India and Take On Art, Online, July 18 2024. Speakers: Sharareh Bajracharya, Tanzim Wahab, Qudsia Rahim, Thamotharampillai Sanaathanan, Sabih Ahmed.

Conferences and Symposiums

• UH Manoa Center for South Asian Studies Spring Symposium 2024: "South Asian Futures", University of Hawai'i at Manoa, April 10-12, 2024. Speakers: Vijay Prashad, Anna Stirr, Pallavi Gupta, Jairus Grove, Monica Gosh, Anju Parvathy Biju, Nudrat Kamal, Sadaf Padder, Ian Bellows, Aqsa Mengal, Mangalika de Silva, Ned Bertz, Nikita Das, Ninad Pandit, Tabinda Mahfooz Khan, Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Kalzang Dorje Bhutia, Charisma Lepcha, Mabel Denzin Gergan, Elspeth Iralu, Sara Smith, Subash Thebe Limbu, Shalini Kakar, Aatika Singh, M. Shobhana Xavier, Prateek Paul, Maha Ali, Jan Brunson, Pallavi Gupta.

Films, Short Films and Series

• Leila, Netflix India, 2019. Based on the book by Prayaag Akbar. Directed by Deepa Mehta.

Music Videos

• Sushin Shyam - "Ray" (Official Video), Directed by Vimal Chandran, 2025. Malayalam.

Publications

Books

• Vandana Singh, The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories, Zubaan Books, Penguin India, January 1 2009. 206pp.

• Shiv Ramdas, Domechild, India Penguin, 2013.

• Sukanya Venkatraghavan (ed.), Magical Women, Hachette India, April 25 2019, 240pp. English. Works by Asma Kazi, Kiran Manral, Krishna Udayasankar, Nikita Deshpande, Ruchika Roy, Samhita Arni, Sejal Mehta, Shreya Ila Anasuya, Shveta Thakrar, Shweta Taneja , Sujatha S.V., Sukanya Venkatraghavan, Tashan Mehta, Trisha Das.

• Tarun K. Saint (ed.), The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, Hachette India, 424pp., 2019. Works by Adrish Bardhan, Anil Menon, Arjun Rajendran, Arunava Sinha, Asif Farrukhi, C.M. Naim, Chandrashekhar Sastry, Clark Prasad, Giti Chandra, Harishankar Parsai, Kaiser Haq, Keki N. Daruwalla, Manjula Padmanabhan, Maya Joshi, Mimi Mondal, Mohammad Salman, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, Payal Dhar, Premendra Mitra, Priya Sarukkai Chabria, Rahul Sankrityayan, Rimi B. Chatterjee, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, S.B. Divya, Sami Ahmad Khan, Shovon Chowdhury, Somendra Singh Kharola, Sumita Sharma, Syed Saeed Naqvi, Tarun K. Saint, Vandana Singh.

• Tarun K. Saint (ed.), The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction Volume 2, Hachette India, Sept 30 2021, 488pp. Works by Manjula Padmanabhan, Tarun K. Saint, Shiv Ramdas, Medha Singh, Tashan Mehta, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Vajra Chandrasekera, Senaa Ahmad, Arjun Raj Gaind, Jayaprakash Satyamurthy, Soham Guha, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Kehkashan Khalid, Bina Shah, Anil Menon, Aparna Ramachandran, Jayant V. Narlikar, Vandana Singh, Gautam Bhatia, Kaiser Haq, Kalsang Yangzom, Gita Chandra, Haris A. Durrani, Usman T. Malik, Salik Shah, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Priya Sarukkai Chabria, Sami Ahmad Khan, Shovon Chowdhury, Sukanya Datta, Premee Mohammad, Naveen Weeraratne, Saad Z. Hossain.

• Taryne Jade Taylor, Isiah Lavender III, Grace L. Dillon, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, Routledge, Oct 2023, 716 pp. Publisher.

Magazines, Journals, Blogs

• Antariksha Studio, Edited by Srinivasa Ramanujan & Jayalakshmi Eshwar, Facebook, 2019-present.
• ElsewhereinIndia, Edited by Srinivasa Ramanujan & Jayalakshmi Eshwar, Instagram, 2020-present.
• Tasavvur, Edited by Tehseen Baweja, Amal Singh, Kehkashan, Divyansha Segal, Mushba Said, 2022-present.
• South Asian Futurism, Edited by Qasim Anwar, Instagram, 2023-.

Videos, Podcasts, Radio

• "South Asian Futurism", The Cardamom Pod, Season 2 Episode 6, Audio, Nov 25 2020. Speakers: Nadya Agrawal, Bishakh Som.

• "Exploring South Asian Futurisms: A Conversation with Sadaf Padder, Curator", Hyperallergic, Youtube, Video, March 28 2023. Speakers: Hrag Vartanian, Sadaf Padder.

Essays, Articles, Book Chapters

• Pravin Pillay, "Consciousness as a Site of Subversion: Rupturing Rational Process and Linearity through Indofuturism", 2005.

• Ryan A D'Souza, "Imagining a Desi Future", South Asian Popular Culture, vol. 17, no.1, Apr 2 2019, pp. 47-59.

• Amar Diwakar, "Browning the Future", The Juggernaut, June 19 2019.

• Nudrat Kamal, "What South Asian sci-fi can tell us about our world", Dawn.com, July 15 2019.

• Priteegandha Naik, "Dalit-futurist Feminism: New Alliances through Dalit Feminism and Indian Science Fiction", Journal of International Womens' Studies, Volume 22, Issue 10, "Casteing Gender: Intersectional Oppression of Dalit women", Bridgewater State University, Oct 2021.

• Dhruva Balram, Raveena Aurora, "Welcome to Raveena’s desi-futurist utopia", Dazed Magazine, February 21 2022.

• Tarun K. Saint, "The New Wave of South Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy", Reactor Mag, March 28 2022.

• Hina Siddiqui, "Cultural Futurism: Possibilities, Probabilities and Potential", ArtNowThus.in, May 2022.

• Puruesh Chaudhary, "The Incredible Awakening: Experiments in Future Studies in Pakistan", Journal of Future Studies, Vol. 26 Issue 04, June 2022.

• Nudrat Kamal, "Dreaming Futures: The Risks and Rewards of South Asian Futurisms", Tasavvurnama, Issue 4, Fall 2022.

• Saddaf Padder, "Coasting the Topography of South Asian Futurisms", Hyperallergic, March 27 2023.

• Saddaf Padder, "How Can a Curator Approach South Asian Futurisms?", Hyperallergic, March 23 2023.

• Saddaf Padder, "In Search of Inclusive South Asian Futurisms", Hyperallergic, March 22 2023.

• Zafrah Khalid, "Navigating Native Slipstream and Indigenous Futurism: Upending Western Tropes in Pakistani Speculative Art", University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics & Literature, Volume 8, ISSUE I, February 2024.

• Kai (Kari) Altmann, "XLE.LIFE New Terms 2024: #Indofuturism(s) and #Desifuturism(s)", XLE.LIFE, March 2024.

• Juwairiyyah Ali, "South Asian Solarpunk", Flatpack Festival, April 2024.

• Neeharika Haloi, "Dystopian Mumbai: Futurism in Varun Thomas Mathew’s The Black Dwarves of the Good Little Bay", ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, Vol. 24 No. 1 (2025): Tropical Futurisms: Thinking Futures, March 14 2025.

• Guhan Priyadharshan P., "Towards a Sri Lankan Future: Interethnicity and Homosexuality in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy", ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, Vol. 24 No. 1 (2025): Tropical Futurisms: Thinking Futures, March 14 2025.

See Also

Futurisms, Desifuturism, Indofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, Adivasi Futurism, Dalit Futurism, Tamil Futurism, Global South Futurisms, Subaltern Futurism, Third World Futurism, Third Culture, Post Western, Tropical Futurism, Afrofuturism, Decolonization