Rajmohan’s Wife and Sultana’s Dream (1864/1908) features the debut novel of Indian writer Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and a story by Bengali writer, feminist, and educator Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. Rajmohan’s Wife, Chattopadhyay’s only work in English, launched his career as a leading Bengali intellectual and political figure. Written in English, Sultana’s Dream originated as a way of passing time for its young author while her husband was away on work. Initially published in The Indian Ladies Magazine, Sultana’s Dream helped establish Rokeya’s reputation as a leading figure in Bengali arts and culture.
Rajmohan’s Wife is the story of Matangini, a beautiful woman married to a violent, jealous man. Unable to marry the man she loves—who happens to be her own sister’s husband—she settles for the villainous Rajmohan, an abusive man who rules his middle-class Bengali household with an iron fist. With the help of her friend Kanak, Matangini does her best to avoid her husband’s wrath, illuminating the importance of solidarity among women faced with oppression. Vindictive and cruel, Rajmohan secretly enacts a plan to rob Madhav, his brother-in-law, in order to obtain and invalidate a will.
Sultana’s Dream is set in Ladyland is a feminist utopia ruled by women, a perfect civilization with no need for men, who remain secluded and without power. Free to develop their own society, women have invented flying cars, perfected farming to the point where no one must work, and harnessed the energy of the sun. With men under control, there is no longer fear, crime, or violence. Ultimately, Ladyland is a world made to mirror our own, a satirical exploration of the absolute power wielded by men over women, and a political critique of Bengali society at large. Sultana’s Dream is more than a science fiction story; it is an act of resistance made by a woman who would shape the lives of her people through advocacy, education, and activism for generations to come.
This edition of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Rajmohan’s Wife and Sultana’s Dream is a classic of Bengali literature and utopian science fiction reimagined for modern readers.
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Over de auteur
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) was a Bengali writer, feminist, educator, and activist. Born in Rangpur, modern-day Bangladesh, Rokeya was raised in a family of intellectuals and government figures. Interested in literature from a young age, she was encouraged by her older sister Karimunnesa, a poet and social worker, to expand her linguistic knowledge beyond Arabic and Persian by learning Bengali and English. In 1898, Rokeya married an older magistrate from Bhagalpur, a widower who encouraged her to continue her education as well as to pursue the craft of writing. In 1902, she published an essay in Bengali, beginning a career that would soon flourish with Matichur (1905) and Sultana’s Dream (1908), the latter of which has since been recognized as a groundbreaking work of science fiction and feminist utopianism. Following her husband’s death, she founded the Sakhawat Memorial Girls’ High School in his honor. Initially based in Bhagalpur, she moved the school to Calcutta in 1911 and acted as its head administrator until her death in 1932. Referred to honorifically as Begum Rokeya, she spent the remainder of her life as a tireless advocate for the rights of Bengalis and Muslim women.
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