ABSTRACT
Mapping women SF writers beyond the anglosphere has emerged at present as a notable area of exploration for SF. This chapter contributes to such attempts by focusing on three Indian women writers, namely Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Vandana Singh, and Manjula Padmanabhan. By tracing the reverberation of tropes and templates such as the presence of female scientists as protagonists, futuristic versions of India, critique of the gender-roles thrust upon Indian women by its patriarchal system, etc., this discussion will explain how these three writers represent three distinguishable but interrelated directions taken by Indian Science Fiction by women writers for critiquing Indian society’s gender-biased scenario. Additionally, the analysis highlights how ISFW, in the hands of these three writers, has moved towards achieving distinction from the sub-genre of SF known as hard SF.
