Hindu Science Fiction Novels

There have been a few science fiction novels with Hindu theme. I am not sure how many of you have heard about the science fiction ‘Shiva 3000.’ I happened to read it a few years ago. The book was written by Jan Lars Jensen. To be fair it is boring and was a flop.

The location is future India and all the Hindu gods are alive. For a change, some gods are bad. Shiva and Jagannath are some sort of villains as they consume the sinners. Since the world is full of sinners, it means wiping out the entire population.

Baboon Warrior fights the gods. As the names suggests, this hero has the head of a baboon. He is like local folklore hero.

But the hero of the science fiction is Rakesh who wants to kill Baboon Warrior as he stole his bride. Another character is Vasant Alamvala, a royal engineer, who lost his position, and now wants to avenge the person responsible for it. His story has a Kamasutra angle.

Rakesh and Vasant join hands to fight Jagannath, a monster invoked by Brahmins, and they go through several philosophical crisis. These two are joined by some Buddhists. From here it is travelogue and they face new challenges.

You must have tons of patience to read the entire book.

The most interesting aspect was that the Hindu society completely ignored the book. There was not much controversy over the use of Hindu gods as villains and monsters.