Soham Guha
Writer
Abstract
The golden age of science fiction came with the birth of magazines in the 1940s, especially Galaxy, Astounding, and Analog. A magazine not only creates a stable writer and reader pool but also establishes effective communication between them as a medium of genre evolution. In Bengali, it began with Adrish Bardhan’s Aschorjo and Fantastic, and Ranen Ghosh’s Bismoy. However, despite the growth of the genre in Bengal, a void was established and witnessed when these magazines ceased their publication tenure. In an evolving world of literature and technology, Kalpabiswa (a webzine), heralded the gap and embraced the new age.
During the presence of this web magazine, Kalpabiswa has created, established and curated a dedicated reader and writer pool like those of the golden age of international science fiction. In this paper, the researcher has followed the history of this magazine and found how despite being a receding factor, history also repeats itself. This paper dissects the emergence and growth of Kalpabiswa, the various issues it had tackled as theme-specific issues, ranging from country-specific science fiction to pressing issues such as climate change and humanitarian crises, and finds the importance of Kalpabiswa as a web magazine in the development of Bengali science fiction.
“History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, ‘Can’t you remember anything I told you?’ and let’s fly with a club.” – John W. Campbell, Analog Science Fiction and Facts, 1965
According to Greek mythology, Golden Age is denoted as an early age of prosperity, proliferation, peace, and evolution. Various factors throughout human history have denoted various types of “Golden Ages”, and demarcated how these certain ages had encouraged the flow of change. In regards to Science Fiction, that age was demarcated by the explosion of genre-specific magazines, and the editors and writers who brought forth the Golden Age of science fiction during the second world war.
Coined by a ‘partial fandom’, this golden age was observed from the 1940s until the 1960s and it was solely nurtured and curated by magazines like Analog (1930-), Amazing Stories (1926-), Galaxy SF, The Magazine of F&SF (1949-), etc. (Roberts, 2006). In West Bengal, that same boom was observed when Ashchorjo was published (1963-67), in a Bengal devastated by economic instability, refugee crisis, and Partition. Edited by Adrish Bardhan, Ashchorjo was not only the first SF magazine in Bengali, but also in the entire subcontinent. It not only attracted a dedicated reader base, created a versatile writer’s pool, but also contributed to a diverse representation of SF through translation, publication of original fiction, articles, open letters, and interviews (Cousins, 2020). Not only that, chaired by Satyajit Ray, Ashchorjo formed the first cine club for science fiction on the continent (Robinson, 2022). However, after Bardhan was grief-stricken by the death of his wife, Ashchorjo was shut down prematurely.
Despite Ranen Ghosh, and later Bardhan himself, attempting to resurrect the golden age of Bengali SF with their Bismoy and Fantastic magazines respectively, it was neither financially, nor socio-culturally, fruitful enough (Banerjee, 2021).
Since then, there had been a void in the Bengali literary landmass regarding the presence and growth of Kalpavigyan (Bengali SF), as there was no dedicated magazine for the genre. In absence of such magazines, Kalpavigyan experienced an inclusive treatment by the mainstream print magazines, to make the stories more children orientated, and without discussing critical social and political problems through them. Not only that, but the publication of stories containing misinformation about crucial scientifical paradigms also tarnished the reputation of SF as serious literature among Bengali readers. The writer’s pool and reader base, first constructed by Ashchorjo and then maintained by Bismoy and Fantastic, were now an endangered species.
It was in 2016 that a group of young SF enthusiasts felt troubled by the void created by the absence of genre magazines. Kalpabiswa, the first and only vernacular SF magazine in the subcontinent, was inaugurated by Bardhan himself. The event was the brainchild of the editors, Dip Ghosh, Santu Bag, Supriyo Das, and Biswadip Ghosh. The inauguration was more than ‘passing the torch’ and later is remembered as the rebirth of Bengali SF. The editors also created a Facebook page aptly named Kolpobiggan to not only promote their newborn magazine but also spread advertisement and create awareness of what Kalpavigyan truly is. The first issues had pieces written by editors themselves as the revival of Kalpavigyan had not generated reader’s attention yet, alongside reprinted pieces from Bardhan, Ghosh, and many of the Ashchorjo-era authors (Mukherjee, 2020; Khan, 2022).
But what should be the trajectory of this rebirth? The creation of a magazine, despite it being the fundamental cornerstone, was among the uncomplicated endeavours of the rebirth. Sustaining the magazine, and updating it according to the need of the readers, and addressing the demands of the age, while publishing only quality SF content, posed a challenge to the humble beginning of the magazine. For inspiration, the editors looked at Ashchorjo which proliferated in an age of discontinuity among connections and channels, scarcity of awareness and resources, and technological, economic, and geopolitical barriers.
The first barrier that was overcome during the creation of Kalpabiswa was the distribution channel of the magazine. Internet and its global presence were considered the primary and only host for Kalpabiswa, and to this date, the magazine exists as a web-only model (webzine). Like the pro magazines in the western hemisphere, such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Tor, etc., Kalpabiswa opted for an ad-free, non-profit magazine that exists to serve the purpose of growth and evolution of the genre through the presence of the magazine website. Alongside that, Kalpabiswa encouraged the treatment of Kalpavigyan as a serious genre, where various critical, cultural, social, political, and global issues ranging from discrimination, casteism, racism, and homosexuality, to climate change, waste management, economic instability, divergence and convergence of culture and society, and many more were considered as the leading and addressing topics of published original fictions and essays.
Alongside the magazine, Dip Ghosh, Supriyo Das, Santu Bag, and Gautam Mondal had also started a publishing venture called Kalpabiswa Publication that emphasises translated works of global pens like Carlos S. Kohn, Elizabeth Bear, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, etc., original works from revered and emerging pens in Bengali such as Mohor, Riju Ganguly, Debojyoti Bhattacharya, Sumit Bardhan, and many more, and restoration of lost works from masters from the golden age of Kalpavigyan such as Ranen Ghosh, Rajkumar Roychoudhary, Siddhartha Ghoshl, and Adrish Bardhan, among others.
From these evidences put forward, an essential question comes forward: What is the need for a magazine like Kalpabiswa for nurturing and evolving a genre like Bengali speculative fiction, i.e., Kalpavigyan?
For this, we must first understand what sets SF apart from other literary genres, and what is its importance in this age of constant fluxes. What sets speculative fiction apart from any other genres of modern literature, since the time of Shelly, is its appeal of asking difficult questions to derive honest answers from the readers, to make them think and rethink while visiting different worlds through words. Because of this reason, the optimistic tone which was present throughout the old SF stories where mankind had visited distant planets in the near future has been slowly replaced by works that represent our home, and its people, through various analytical lenses, particularly after the publication of Harlan Elision’s Dangerous Vision (Kabele, 2022). The magazines, and the anthologies that run parallel to it as standalone publications, are the only platform for writers, established and emergent alike, to test the limits of their respective pens and the genre. Taking the example of Analog One, edited by Campbell, as one of the first Year’s Best anthologies to represent the finest works from Analog Science Fiction and Facts magazine, that showcases a story called The Monument (Campbell (Jr.), n.d.). Though superficially it is an example of hard science fiction, at its core it challenges colonialism, the loss of indigenous culture, the geological and species diversity of that planet through rampant tourism and development, and how one such culture was able to prevent it through enacting a constitution.
Close home, one such story called Mohasunyer Monimukto (The Stars are Jewels), by Siddhartha Ghosh, tackled the theme of time dilation, cosmic distances, perils of interstellar mining, and human (child) trafficking. Despite it being a very mature story, and published by one of the premier Bengali magazines, it was forgotten by the general SF readers until it was incorporated into a collected volume of works by the author (published by Kalpabiswa).
In essence, any genre-specific magazine provides a stable platform for such experimental stories to exist and be later collected and published. As SF tackles a variety of themes and topics, when one of such topics becomes reality, these pre-existing works pave a path for understanding. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, works of literature such as Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year, Neal Asher’s Lockdown Tales, or Kalpabiswa’s pandemic special issue provided a glimpse of what the future holds (Kalpabiswa, n.d. 2). Furthermore, like Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel called Ministry of the Future, Kalpabiswa’s climate fiction issue provided glimpses of an India (and Bengal), scarred by the climate refugee crisis, change in the monsoon due to severe deforestation and shift in the ocean currents, drying of rivers in both north and south India due to global warming, and overfishing leading to an empty ocean that has the potential to destabilise the entire food and supply chain (Kalpabiswa, n.d.1).
From a holistic perspective, how a magazine treats the respective genre, and contributes to it accordingly, also determines how the genre would grow because of it. Before the emergence of Kalpabiswa, and since the discontinuation of Bardhan’s Fantastic, though there had been efforts put into motion by various entities such as Samarjit Kar and Anish Deb, the growth and evolution of Bengali SF was stunted. However, since 2016, and in recent years, an awareness and prominent popularity of Kalpavigyan among Bengali readers, especially young adult readers, was observed, especially during the International Kolkata Book Fairs. From this evidence, and the recent SF titles published by other publishing houses, such as Jaydhak, Aranyamon, and Patra Varati, it can be said that there is an almost untapped market for vernacular SF in West Bengal. Compared to West Bengal, there are and were prominent SF writers in Bangladesh such as Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Humayun Ahmed, Saiful Islam Tipu, etc., and their dedicated reader base. From the encouragement and enthusiasm shown by the young readers, it is also evident that they were starved for good SF, not inclusive and child-friendly science fiction and fantasy that was available.
Furthermore, the growth of a genre cannot be encouraged without two things, academic works dedicated to the genre, related conferences, and awards given to authors for their work. For this, there had been various SF-cons in the West, and various workshops where new pens can learn their skill. In this regard, Clarion West, the formation of SWFA had been providing a platform of conglomeration where writers, editors, readers, and artists can reach others and provide valuable feedback on their works (Shawl and Ward, 2005). Kalpabiswa and Jadavpur University held one such conference called Workshops of Horrible Creation, which was also to celebrate the bicentenary year celebration of Shelly’s Frankenstein, in 2018 (Scroll.in, 2019). At this conference, academicians and writers attended various panels, delivered talks on their works and provided critical analysis of the genre. It was one of the first conferences of such kind in Eastern India. Furthermore, Kalpabiswa had also declared awards, named after the two pioneering magazines Ashchorjo and Bismoy, and delivered them to two authors for their respective contributions in the genre in the 48th Kolkata Book Fair.
As Campbell had said, history demands to be repeated. History is like a receding wave, it ebbs with time; with it, the memories evaporate or turn into nostalgia. It becomes the task of the few to repeat it, cultivate it and progress into the future. The harbingers of such changes are often termed revolutionists. In this light, his quote, looking at the achievements of this webzine and how far it has come in a few short years, becomes either a spectacle or a topic of debate. But from all the accounts visited in this essay, it can be said with definitive affirmation that the rebirth of Kalpavigyan has already begun.
Works Cited:
Banerjee, Suparno. “A Pioneering Study of Indian Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies 48.1 (2021): 163-166.
Campbell (Jr.), John Wood. Analog: One / Edited by John W. Campbell. Google Books, Panther Books Limited, books.google.co.in/books/about/Analog.html?id=LH4YzgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y.
Cousins, Rick. “Gutenberg in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.” Science Fiction Studies 47.1 (2020): 145-148.
Kabele, A., 2022. History of Science Fiction and the Impact of SF anthology Dangerous Visions on the Development of the Genre.
Kalpabiswa. (n.d. 1). Issue10 Archives. https://www.kalpabiswa.in/issue/issue10/
Kalpabiswa. (n.d. 2). Issue17 Archives https://www.kalpabiswa.in/issue/issue17/
Khan, Sami Ahmad. “The Indian Recipe for Good Science Fiction.” Arab and Muslim Science Fiction: Critical Essays 74 (2022): 259.
Mukherjee, Upamanyu Pablo. Final Frontiers: Science Fiction and Techno-Science in Non-Aligned India. Vol. 61. Liverpool Science Fiction Texts & Studies, 2020.
Roberts, Adam. “Golden Age Science Fiction 1940–1960.” The History of Science Fiction. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2006. 195-229.
Robinson, Andrew. “The unique universe of Satyajit Ray.” Physics World 35.8 (2022): 27.
Scroll.in, 2019. A science fiction conference in Kolkata showed that the genre has remained alive and well in Bengal. https://scroll.in/article/910771/a-science-fiction-conference-in-kolkata-showed-that-the-genre-has-remained-alive-and-well-in-bengal
Shawl, Nisi, and Cynthia Ward. “Writing the Other.” A Practical Approach (2005).
The universe is made of quarks and speculative dreams. As a part of this universe, Soham Guha (সোহম গুহ) finds himself often in his suburban home near Kolkata (India). He writes in his mother tongue, Bengali, and English as well. His works were published in Kalpabiswa.com, Scroll.in, Mohs 5.5: Megastructure Anthology, Mithila Review, Meteotopia: Futures of Climate (In)justice, and The Gollancz Anthology of South Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy Vol II. His collection of Bengali speculative fiction can be found in Archimedes and Other Stories (2022, Kalpabiswa Publications). He is an editor for the global literature magazine for translation, The Antonym.
[Volume 5, Number 1, 2023]
