Paper short abstract:

The paper is based on the Hindi short story A-maanav ("Nonman", published in the 2010 collection Mitti ke log, "People of the soil") by S.R. Harnot, which focuses on the problem of ultramodernisation, leading to dehumanisation. Translation of the short story will be presented for group discussion.

Paper long abstract:

The short story A-maanav ("Nonman", 2010) by S.R. Harnot (born in 1955 into a dalit family in a small mountain village of the Shimla district) is set in a deserted village of India in the 25th-26th centuries. Ultramodern and advanced scientists spotted the site in satellite photographs. In the dense thicket covering the ruins they detected a human form like the one they had once happened to see on Mars. With the aid of machines, they discovered that it was a man of the 21st century, who was still alive. The image of 21st century India they had known from some surviving old books of history, had wholly changed. Where in the past corrupt politics and fanaticism had destroyed everything, a new generation was being born of 30- to 40-year-old men with a new brain, who were as experienced and knowledgeable as if they were many centuries old. All was mechanical. A team of five men set out in search of the old man. They landed with their flying saucer in the ruins that had been spotted. They had heard about grain, and wished to know if the old man still had grain, which they held as the secret of his longevity. The old man angrily accuses them of having destroyed a world full of life and generated nonmen. Nature takes a vengeance upon their ultramodern world - a crowd of ants surround the flying saucer, and drag it underground.