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Contribution short abstract:

How do youth in India imagine their futures? With a focus on superhero comics including the snake-like Nagraj, the atomic powered Parmanu and the ethereal powers of Shakti, this paper showcases a film, Dishoom India, with a focus on the social and imaginative worlds of youth in north India.

Contribution long abstract:

Superheroes bring to mind caped crusaders such as Superman, Batman, or Captain America. The more gender attuned foreground Wonderwoman among other avatars. Those looking eastwards might highlight Japanese characters from Manga. But what about other cultural repertoires of intergalactic superheroes/heroines? How do other young people engage with illustrations, storytelling and imaginaries of superheroism?

Too often cultural examples from the global South are seen through a western or Eurocentric lens. There is a need to appreciate other comic books and youth cultures on their own terms in conversation with other cultural trends on an equal footing as part of connected yet culturally distinctive communities.

India hosts the world's largest youth population (aged 15-25) yet little is known about their social and imaginative worlds. This film, Dishoom India!, enables an appreciation of Indian comic books and youth cultures on their own terms in conversation with other cultural trends on an equal footing as part of connected yet culturally distinctive communities.

So far one only hears about India's space exploration, moon mission, nuclear submarines and other attempts to become a regional superpower. Fantasies to become a global and even intergalactic superpower are strikingly evident in superhero/ine stories that adds other fascinating, and perhaps disturbing, layers of cultural meaning to the fantastic outputs of an emerging Asian power.

The film draws upon anthropological and comic studies research that informs the book, Adventure Comics and Youth Cultures in India by Raminder Kaur and Saif Eqbal (Routledge, 2018)