"The Secluded Ones" is a selection of short sketches, first published in Bengali newspapers, illuminating the cruel and comic realities of life in purdah.
"The Secluded Ones" is a selection of short sketches, first published in Bengali newspapers, illuminating the cruel and comic realities of life in purdah.
Sultana's Dream: And Selections from The Secluded Ones
104
Sultana's Dream: And Selections from The Secluded Ones
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Overview
"The Secluded Ones" is a selection of short sketches, first published in Bengali newspapers, illuminating the cruel and comic realities of life in purdah.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781558617353 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Feminist Press at CUNY, The |
| Publication date: | 09/02/2013 |
| Series: | A Feminist Press Sourcebook |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 104 |
| File size: | 484 KB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
"Sultana's Dream": Purdah Reversed
Roushan Jahan
"Soultana's dream," published in 1905 in a Madras-based English periodical, The Indian Ladies' Magazine, is one of the earliest "self-consciously feminist" Utopian stories written in English by a woman. It is certainly the first such story to be written by an Indian woman. Its author, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932), is the first and foremost feminist of Bengali Muslim Society. One hesitates to use a term that is not context-free, and feminism does mean different things to different people, yet it is the term that automatically occurs to many who read Rokeya's work now. At the time she wrote this story, she had already attracted considerable attention as an essayist, having published several articles in Bangla dealing exclusively with the subordination and oppression of Bengali women, especially Bengali Muslim women.
Rokeya reminisced about writing this story in 1930, twenty-five years after its publication. As she remembered, she was all alone in her house because her husband, Khan Bahadur Syed Sakhawat Hossain, a Deputy Magistrate, was away on a tour of inspection. He was stationed in Bamka, a small town in the district of Bhagalpur, in the present-day Indian state of Bihar. The young Bengali Muslim woman must have felt especially lonely in a household where everybody spoke Urdu; for, although Rokeya spoke Urdu, Bengali was her native tongue. "To pass the time, I wrote the story." Her motivation was partly to demonstrate her proficiency in English to her non-Bengali husband, who encouraged her to read and write English, and who was her immediate and appreciative audience. Partly the desire must have been to test her ability in literary forms other than essays.
When Sakhawat returned, he did exactly what Rokeya had anticipated. He casually inquired about what she had been doing. "When I showed him the manuscript, he read the whole thing without even bothering to sit down. 'A terrible revenge!' he said when he was finished." He was impressed with the story, which is not surprising, and sent it to his friend Mr. McPherson, the divisional commissioner of Bhagalpur, for comments. Like any other young author, Rokeya was immensely relieved to receive flattering comments from him. "In his letter to my husband he wrote, 'The ideas expressed in it are quite delightful and full of originality and they are written in perfect English. ... I wonder if she has foretold here the manner in which we may be able to move about in the air at some future time. Her suggestions on this point are most ingenious.'" On the basis of such remarks, Sakhawat persuaded her to send the story to The Indian Ladies' Magazine, which published it that year (1905). By 1908, Rokeya had gained enough confidence as an author to submit "Sultana's Dream" for publication as a book. It appeared that year from S. K. Lahiri and Company in Calcutta.
It is perhaps not surprising that most readers react to "Sultana's Dream" as a pleasant fantasy and not "a terrible revenge" on men for their oppression of women, as her perceptive husband did. Even those who did perceive the bitter truth under the sugar-coating seemed to welcome this after the tremendous anger and biting wit displayed without camouflage in her essays. Critics like Abul Hussain thought of similarities with Swift's Gulliver's Travels, a book Rokeya much enjoyed and to which she referred more than once in her essays. He thought that the extreme measure of secluding men in Ladyland was a "reaction to the prevailing oppression and vulnerability of our women. ... perhaps Mrs. R. S. Hossain wrote this to create a sense of self-confidence among the very vulnerable Bengali women. ... That women may possess faculties and talents equivalent to or greater than men — that they are capable of developing themselves to a stage where they may attain complete mastery over nature without any help from men and create a new world of perfect beauty, great wealth and goodness — this is what 'Sultana's Dream' depicts. ... I hope the male readers of 'Sultana's Dream' would try to motivate the women of their families toward self-realization."
Indeed, to motivate Bengali Muslim women toward self-realization and to persuade their society not to obstruct their way to self-realization was the mission of Rokeya's life. "Sultana's Dream" was one of many sorties in her lifelong and relentless jihad (holy war) waged against some of the basic principles of her society. As a publicist in the cause of women, she wielded her pen with considerable skill. She had an unerring eye for the vulnerable points of the opponents. She also possessed a remarkable sense of the comic, which enhanced her resources as a challenger. Though her style is remarkably lively and witty (school children in Bangladesh are still grateful to her for not writing tremendously boring essays like many of her male contemporaries), she did not write primarily to entertain. Rather, she marshaled her thoughts and arguments in order to question the existing order of things, to raise doubts about seemingly accepted facts, and to motivate people to take the necessary actions to change customs she considered evil and unjust.
This mission may well account for the fact that Rokeya did not continue writing and publishing in English, despite flattering comments from her contemporaries about her use of that language. Her pen was, first, a weapon in her crusade for social reform. Since her main concern was to raise the consciousness of the men and women of her own class of Muslim Bengal, her own language was the most appropriate medium for achieving her purpose. Moreover, she was a careful stylist, keen to achieve the desired effect with the words she used. Let us not forget that English was the fifth language she learned. Perhaps she was not confident when using English. It is likely that her experiment with the language as a medium of her creative writing convinced her that the idiom of English was not suited to her particular gifts. Whatever the reason, and she never shed any light on it, we know that she used English only when compelled to do so.
"Sultana's Dream" is a Utopian work, with strong satirical elements. The Indian context is unmistakable. For example, through the dialogue of Sultana and Sister Sara the untenability of many of the prevalent Indian notions of "masculine" and "feminine" character are demonstrated. Sultana extols the wonder of Ladyland and represents the Indian stereotype while Sister Sara presents the outsider's view. At the same time she is also the alter ego of the author. Through Sultana, Rokeya ridicules Indian stereotypes and customs.
Women in Ladyland are powerful, but to portray a society where women are in a position of power, Rokeya did not find it necessary to eliminate men or to propose anything so drastic as Charlotte Perkins Gilman did a few years later in Herland, in which parthenogenesis was the means for continuing a unisex society. In Ladyland men are a part of the society but are shorn of power, as women were in Rokeya's India. They live in seclusion and look after the house and the children, again, just like the women in Rokeya's India. Women, the dominant group in Ladyland, do not consider men fit for any skilled work, much as Indian men thought of women at that time. It is as if the omnipotent author is punishing men in an ideal world, according to the laws of poetic justice, for their criminal oppression of women in the real world. Men are being paid in their own coin and with interest. Rokeya's story does not tell us whether Ladyland changes basic human nature. Perhaps that was not her intention. All we are certain of is that she never again suggested the extreme measure of male seclusion. Indeed, given Rokeya's yearning for liberty and equality, it is hardly likely that she would have found the domination of either sex agreeable.
Though the story is presented as a dream, an internal logic is maintained. Extraordinary things do happen but not by magic or through supernatural agencies. All is explained in terms of advanced technology. This technology serves human needs to beneficial ends. Here again the Indian context is very clear. Ladyland has many amenities that Rokeya's India lacked. We have only to think of the India of horse-drawn carriages, gaslights, smelly, smoke-filled kitchens, dusty streets, natural disasters, famines and epidemics, cockroaches and mosquitoes — all the big problems and petty nuisances of Indian everyday life — to appreciate the Utopian element and the trust the author has in the power of science and technology to solve these problems. To us, living in the shadow of the nuclear threat, such faith and trust in the benevolent aspect of science and technology as that displayed by authors like Rokeya, or Gilman, may seem quaintly touching or slightly naive. But it would not have seemed so in the days before World War I.
Rokeya's emphasis on science and technology in Ladyland must also be seen in terms of the debate about women's education in her time and place. Among her contemporaries, even the most forward-looking Brahmos, who were generally in favor of education for women, emphasized a curriculum that was not strong in science and mathematics. In this context, Rokeya was not only stressing the need for female education in general but also a type of education that enabled women to excel in science.
Finally, a word about the style and language. By temperament an essayist, Rokeya rarely wrote fiction and rarely wrote in English. And yet, of course, "Sultana's Dream" is an extraordinary achievement, and one that is particularly enjoyable today. For readers in both the East and the West, the reversal of male and female in a simple and powerful plot is intellectually appealing as well as humorous. And today, when the empowerment of women and the need for a reappraisal of gender roles have become internationally prominent issues, Rokeya's story seems less Utopian than it did in 1905.
A Note on the Text
The text of "Sultana's Dream" presented here is closely based on the text included in the collected works of Rokeya, Rokeya Racanavali, published in 1973 by the Bangla Academy of Dhaka. That text retains the style of Rokeya's early-twentieth-century Bangla-influenced English. For clarity to readers of this volume, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation have been standardized according to present-day U.S. conventions.
CHAPTER 2Sultana's Dream
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
ONE EVENING I was lounging in an easy chair in my bedroom and thinking lazily of the condition of Indian womanhood. I am not sure whether I dozed off or not. But, as far as I remember, I was wide awake. I saw the moonlit sky sparkling with thousands of diamondlike stars, very distinctly.
All on a sudden a lady stood before me; how she came in, I do not know. I took her for my friend, Sister Sara.
"Good morning," said Sister Sara. I smiled inwardly as I knew it was not morning, but starry night. However, I replied to her, saying, "How do you do?" "I am all right, thank you. Will you please come out and have a look at our garden?"
I looked again at the moon through the open window, and thought there was no harm in going out at that time. The menservants outside were fast asleep just then, and I could have a pleasant walk with Sister Sara.
I used to have my walks with Sister Sara, when we were at Darjeeling. Many a time did we walk hand in hand and talk lightheartedly in the botanical gardens there. I fancied Sister Sara had probably come to take me to some such garden, and I readily accepted her offer and went out with her.
When walking I found to my surprise that it was a fine morning. The town was fully awake and the streets alive with bustling crowds. I was feeling very shy, thinking I was walking in the street in broad daylight, but there was not a single man visible.
Some of the passersby made jokes at me. Though I could not understand their language, yet I felt sure they were joking. I asked my friend, "What do they say?" "The women say you look very mannish."
"Mannish?" said I. "What do they mean by that?"
"They mean that you are shy and timid like men."
"Shy and timid like men?" It was really a joke. I became very nervous when I found that my companion was not Sister Sara, but a stranger. Oh, what a fool had I been to mistake this lady for my dear old friend Sister Sara.
She felt my fingers tremble in her hand, as we were walking hand in hand.
"What is the matter, dear, dear?" she said affectionately.
"I feel somewhat awkward," I said, in a rather apologizing tone, "as being a purdahnishin woman I am not accustomed to walking about unveiled."
"You need not be afraid of coming across a man here. This is Ladyland, free from sin and harm. Virtue herself reigns here."
By and by I was enjoying the scenery. Really it was very grand. I mistook a patch of green grass for a velvet cushion. Feeling as if I were walking on a soft carpet, I looked down and found the path covered with moss and flowers.
"How nice it is," said I.
"Do you like it?" asked Sister Sara. (I continued calling her "Sister Sara," and she kept calling me by my name.)
"Yes, very much; but I do not like to tread on the tender and sweet flowers."
"Never mind, dear Sultana. Your treading will not harm them; they are street flowers."
"The whole place looks like a garden," said I admiringly. "You have arranged every plant so skillfully."
"Your Calcutta could become a nicer garden than this, if only your countrymen wanted to make it so."
"They would think it useless to give so much attention to horticulture, while they have so many other things to do."
"They could not find a better excuse," said she with [a] smile.
I became very curious to know where the men were. I met more than a hundred women while walking there, but not a single man.
"Where are the men?" I asked her.
"In their proper places, where they ought to be."
"Pray let me know what you mean by 'their proper places.' "
"Oh, I see my mistake, you cannot know our customs, as you were never here before. We shut our men indoors."
"Just as we are kept in the zenana?"
"Exactly so."
"How funny." I burst into a laugh. Sister Sara laughed too.
"But, dear Sultana, how unfair it is to shut in the harmless women and let loose the men."
"Why? It is not safe for us to come out of the zenana, as we are naturally weak."
"Yes, it is not safe so long as there are men about the streets, nor is it so when a wild animal enters a marketplace."
"Of course not."
"Suppose some lunatics escape from the asylum and begin to do all sorts of mischief to men, horses, and other creatures: in that case what will your countrymen do?"
"They will try to capture them and put them back into their asylum."
"Thank you! And you do not think it wise to keep sane people inside an asylum and let loose the insane?"
"Of course not!" said I, laughing lightly.
"As a matter of fact, in your country this very thing is done! Men, who do or at least are capable of doing no end of mischief, are let loose and the innocent women shut up in the zenana! How can you trust those untrained men out of doors?"
"We have no hand or voice in the management of our social affairs. In India man is lord and master. He has taken to himself all powers and privileges and shut up the women in the zenana."
"Why do you allow yourselves to be shut up?"
"Because it cannot be helped as they are stronger than women."
"A lion is stronger than a man, but it does not enable him to dominate the human race. You have neglected the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural rights by shutting your eyes to your own interests."
"But my dear Sister Sara, if we do everything by ourselves, what will the men do then?"
"They should not do anything, excuse me; they are fit for nothing. Only catch them and put them into the zenana."
"But would it be very easy to catch and put them inside the four walls?" said I. "And even if this were done, would all their business — political and commercial — also go with them into the zenana?"
Sister Sara made no reply. She only smiled sweetly. Perhaps she thought it was useless to argue with one who was no better than a frog in a well.
By this time we reached Sister Sara's house. It was situated in a beautiful heart-shaped garden. It was a bungalow with a corrugated iron roof. It was cooler and nicer than any of our rich buildings. I cannot describe how neat and nicely furnished and how tastefully decorated it was.
We sat side by side. She brought out of the parlor a piece of embroidery work and began putting on a fresh design.
"Do you know knitting and needlework?"
"Yes: we have nothing else to do in our zenana."
"But we do not trust our zenana members with embroidery!" she said laughing, "as a man has not patience enough to pass thread through a needlehole even!"
"Have you done all this work yourself?" I asked her, pointing to the various pieces of embroidered teapoy cloths.
"Yes."
"How can you find time to do all these? You have to do the office work as well? Have you not?"
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Sultana's Dream"
by .
Copyright © 1988 Roushan Jahan.
Excerpted by permission of Feminist Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
1. Cover Page,
2. Author Photo,
3. Title Page,
4. Copyright Page,
5. Table of Contents,
6. Preface,
7. Chronology,
8. "Sultana's Dream": Purdah Reversed,
9. Sultana's Dream,
10. The Secluded Ones: Purdah Observed,
11. Selections from The Secluded Ones,
12. Rokeya: An Introduction To Her Life,
13. Afterward, Caging The Lion: A Fable for Our Time,
14. Glossary,
15. About the Author,
16. About the Feminist Press,
17. Also Available From the Feminist Press,