"Sultana's Dream"
Publication and Author
"Sultana's Dream" was written in 1905 by Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain.Though she was born in 1880 to a wealthy Bengali family, Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain did not recieve a formal education, but rather was informally taught and encouraged by her brother. Rokeya married at the age of 16 to a deputy magistrate, and her husband, who was already a widower at the age of 40, was very supportive of her passion for education and encouraged her own reading and writing.
Like the queen in her story, she helped establish a school for Indian girls. Using the money her husband willed to her upon his death, Rokeya opened the school in Calcutta in 1911. Named Sakhawat Memorial Girls’ High School after her late husband, it is still in existance today.
"Sultana's Dream" is said to have been written while her husband was away on business, leaving her at home alone. Supposedly, it was written in English to show off her skills in the language to her husband. It is the only story she wrote in English as all later works were written in Bengali, and was subsequently published in The Indian Ladies Magazine.
More of a literary journal than a traditional woman's magazine, The Indian Ladies Magazine was the the first of its kind in India to be established and edited by an Indian woman, in English, written by women, for women. Editor Kamala Satthianadhan, wrote in her first editorial in 1901, "The main object of the magazine will be to help advance the cause of the women of India... The main influences that are at work in this land, have not appreciably affected the women, the men having benefited more largely than the women in the matter of education and social development. If the people of India are to advance, they should realise that: 'the woman's cause is the man's; they rise or sink together.'" In publication from 1901-1938, its content addressed topics such as social reform, the emergence of Indian identity politics, and shifting concepts of “womanliness." During an era of great change in India, the magazine provided a feminine lens with which to view that change.
Synopsis
The main character, known only by the title as a Sultana, falls asleep in her sitting room. She is awoken by a woman that she mistakes for her friend, Sister Sara. Sister Sara leads the sultana on a walk through a Calcutta she no longer recognizes. Women are everywhere, no longer enclosed in their zenanas, and without a man in sight.Noticing the sultana's confusion, Sister Sara explains their country's history. When their current queen took power, she established a university solely for women, and changed marriage laws to allow women the chance to be educated. Though the men scoffed, the two female universities developed advanced technologies that allowed them to harness rain and sunlight.
When a war broke out with a neighboring nation, the men were unable to defeat them. Convincing the men to take refuge in their zenanas to preserve their feminine modesty, the women use their solar technology to burn the enemy's army. Supported by her female subjects, the queen decided that the men should remain in the zenanas, now called mardanas or man's space, and they eventually accepted their new place.
Sister Sara proceeds to bring the sultana to meet the queen in a flying car, but as they leave, the sultana falls from the car and wakes up from this dream.
Theme
Beyond the common themes explored through this project, ideas of nature, space, and feminist utopia are also explored.In this alternate Calcutta, the sultana finds gardens everywhere, and the roads are paved with moss. They eat only fruit and even the queen has a particular interest in botany planning to “convert the whole country into one grand garden." Their knowledge of sciene is also nature-based. The technologies developed by the female universities are focus on natural forces; they harness the powers of of the rain and sun to better their society. Yet, it is only the women that find value in these pursuits. Only women are able to make the earth thrive, but also, it is through the power of the earth that women thrive. "For the wishful utopist narrator of Rokeya’s text, Nature and her abundant resources offer alternative power source and thus open the door to a new world where Woman and Nature stand as the unmistakable agents of power" (Hasanat 117).
"Sultana's Dream" highlights the prevelant practice of gender separation, through the depictions of zenanas and mardanas. Space in both Calcuttas is divided and cannot be crossed. For the Sultana, it is the space she finds at the beginning of the novella, relaxing alone and away from men, where she is able to dream up such a society. So too in Ladyland, with the men in their mardanas, these women have space to thrive. (video 18:41-20:27) Both of these are examples where women create incredible things when given the space. However, Rokeya also puts forth the idea that women are complicit when it comes to their confined space in both the sultana's world and, by extension, ours. (video 31:46-33:42) Sister Sara tells the sultana that women have "neglected the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural rights by shutting your eyes to your own interests." Like the women in her story, Rokeya wants women to claim a space for themselves. Even from within the purdah system, the women of Ladyland found a space to claim power, and now women of the wider world need to open their eyes and do the same.
In this novella, the author explores her own ideas of perfection, and the ideal society by creating a utopian society. The space she creates is clearly structured as a space for women, as the above video points out (8:50-10:58). From the first line, the narrator remarks that she was thinking on the "conditions of women," resulting in a dream that comments and perfects the flaws about which she was ruminating. And yet, as with all utopias, it is important to seek out thoe imperfections that are created, because is Rokeya's world, oppression still exists. Sister Sara proudly proclaims total domination of men, science, and nature. It may seem that an ideal society has been created, but oppression and arrogance still exist, a fact made clear when the sultana wakes from this dream (Hasanat 123). Perfection is not reached by applying the rules in reverse.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Herland
Iola Leroy
Intersectionality
This page has paths:
- Intersectionality in Early Feminist Texts Gabrielle Borders
- Intersectionality Gabrielle Borders
