LIFE IN THE YUGANTIC MODE: FUTURISMS, INDIA, AND A TIME BETWEEN WORLDS

Abstract

Indian Science Fiction emerges from intersecting epistemes, blending Western science, folk traditions, and Hindu cosmologies. These knowledge systems collide and interact, intertwining the mythological and colonial with the speculative. A defining feature of Indian SF is its reliance on past imaginaries to construct futures that feel intimately tied to the present. This raises a critical question: Can the depiction of a future be understood as always already embedded in the living present? Such a perspective aligns with the cyclical schema of time in Hindu cosmology, where the Kali Yuga, the current, terminal epoch, transitions into the Yuganta—a liminal period of chaos and renewal, where destruction and regeneration coexist. Amid the rise of Hindutva and escalating climate crises, this paper examines Indian SF’s Yugantic mode, where mythic time merges with futuristic speculation. It analyzes films like Kalki 2989 AD (2024) and graphic novels such as 18 Days (2010), which depict a world in transition, reframing mythology through SF. Drawing on Darko Suvin’s SF-realism framework and Suparno Banerjee’s critique of postcolonial SF, this paper argues that Indian SF’s cyclical temporality and mythological subversion offers a powerful lens through which to navigate the intertwined crises of climate change and social inequality in the Anthropocene