A summary of the 16th National Conference on Science Fiction, IASFS, Bangalore.

1. 16th National Conference on Science Fiction
Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies
A Report
Dr.Srinarahari

2. The Beginning
 It is a matter of great pleasure to bring on record that in
1988, the magazine 2001 from New Delhi had an
interview with Isaac Asimov via satellite .
 This event was carried out by the team work of Mukul
Sharma (editor,2001), Chandan Mitra (coordinator), and
The Times of India Asst Editor Jug Suraiya.

3. II Wave
• I presume that this is the beginning of the II wave of the
World Science Fiction movement in India
• Exactly a decade later, Indian Association for Science
Fiction Studies was established on Asimov’s birthday. The
year marks the completion of a century of the publication
of “Agosh” by J.C. Bose.

4. IASFS
• IASFS was established on January 2, 1998.
• Since then it has been promoting research
work in the field of Indian SF.
• So far, the Association has organized 12
National and 3 International Conferences.
They were held at Chennai, Coimbatore,
Gandhigram, and Vellore in Tamil Nadu,
Bangalore,Mysore & Yellahatti in Karnataka,
Varanasi in UP, Aurangabad and Pune in
Maharashtra States, Kochi in Kerala state
as well as at Pondichery.

5. International Conferences
• Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies had
organized International Conferences consecutively for
three times
• in collaboration with the Departments of English
• at Bharatiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu,
• Yeshwant Mohite College, Pune, Maharashtra, and
• St. Teresa‘s College, Kochi, Kerala

6. Themes
• A few themes dealt in the previous conferences are
Artificial Intelligence, Cinema and SF, Fantasy,
Genetic Engineering,
• Hindi SF, Indian Responses to World SF, Indian SF
in Vernacular languages,
• Literary Criticism on Indian SF,

7. SF Writing Workshop
• IASFS had arranged an SF Story Writing Workshop
conducted by Eric Miller and story reading session by
respective SF writers.
• Apart from arranging a video interactive conference with
the Scientists and SF writers in India, a video conference
was also established with Professor James Gunn of
Kansas, USA.

8. IJSFS
• The association is bringing out biannual Indian Journal of
Science Fiction Studies.
• It has been publishing Scholarly Articles, Short Stories and also
the Papers read at the conferences.

9. SF in Villages!
• India is a land of villages. In order to encourage
intellectual growth among the villagers and youth and to
provide an SF ambience, IASFS has moved to Yellatti a
rural place in India to introduce and to popularize SF to
the rural students and enthusiastic young people.

10. 15th SF Conference at Yellahatti, Karnataka
Mukesh Khanna, Nagabharana,
Bhoosnurmutt,Bhelkar,Mallikarjun Patil and others.

11. Our Backbone

12. National Science Fiction Conference held at Elphinstone College, Mumbai
February 10 &11, 2015
Keynote address

13. Interaction with participants and organizers.

14. IASFS Vice President Bhoosnurmutt (77) passed away.
He had produced more than 50 SF works.

15. Attempts to hold the Conference
• 1. We had anticipated that Dhanwate National College, Nagpur, Maharashtra
would organize the 16th SF conference.
• 2. Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology, Gaziabad would organize the
conference.
• 3.Department of English, Pondicherry University had considered deeply
about the proposed conference but could hold a conference with much
financial crunch during September 2016.
• 4.Bengali Science Fiction fans have consented to hold the conference but
they require an year's time. We shall wait for the day and we shall all give our
hearty support to them in organizing the same.

16. SF: Indian Scenario
• Dr. Ashish Mahabal's Marathi writing has continued and three sci-fi short
stories have appeared in Diwali 2016 issues.
• Since January 2016 Supriyo Das & Dip Ghosh ave undertaken a project of
publishing the first ever Science Fiction & Fantasy themed Web-Magazine in
Bengali. Visit: www.kalpabiswa.com.
• Dr. Arvind Mishra had initiated to hold SF workshops in Hindi in UP.
• Matteo Primiterra is an Italian Film Maker. Presently he is Assam. We are
proud to state that IASFS is helping him to provide the details about the
Indian Science Fiction.

17. Further,
• Departments of Media Studies, Anthropology, and Emperical Studies of
University of Tuebingen, Germany had organized a conference on
“Contesting Images of Future of India” during February 2016 at the University
campus in Germany. Dr.Vandana Singh the SF writer had given the Keynote
address.
• Sami Ahmed Khan has edited an online magazine Muse India which came
out with a special feature on "Indian Science Fiction" in the May-June 2015
issue. Creative and critical SF works (literary articles, commentaries, short-
stories, poetry, book-reviews, artwork, anything else pertaining to Indian SF)
were all included.

18. Dr. Zeashan Heider Zaidi Awarded the Best SF writer by
Print Media Working Association on 10.02. 2017.

19. First Asian Science Fiction Conference
• A private company in China has proposed to hold the first
Asian Science Fiction Conference in China during Spring
2018.
• They have approached me for some details.
• We have to wait for the details.