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Sultana's Dream — Rokeya Sakhawat HossainSultana's Dream — Line-by-Line Explanation

Sultana's Dream — Line-by-Line Explanation — Notes

Sultana's Dream Summary and Explanation by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

Author: Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (Begum Rokeya)

Published: 1905 in The Indian Ladies Magazine, Madras

Genre: Feminist Utopian Fiction / Short Story

Written in: English (by a Bengali Muslim writer)

The Story: Sultana Enters Ladyland

The story is narrated by Sultana, who is sitting alone in her room one evening, thinking about the condition of Indian women. She is not sure whether she falls asleep, but she soon finds herself in what feels like a dream. A woman appears in front of her, and Sultana mistakes her for her friend Sister Sara.

Sister Sara invites Sultana to walk outside and see the garden. Sultana feels nervous because she is used to covering her face in public. But Sister Sara calms her down and says: "There is no need to worry. You will not see a single man here. This is Ladyland, a place far away from wrongdoing and harm."

As Sultana walks through the streets, she sees a clean and lively city full of women. There is no man visible anywhere. When some people seem to mock Sultana, Sister Sara explains they are calling her "weak like a man." In Ladyland, it is men who are considered weak and dangerous, not women. This is the central irony of the story.

Where Are the Men? The Reversal of Purdah

Sultana finally asks the big question: "Where are all the men?"

Sister Sara replies clearly: "Where they should be. Locked inside." In Ladyland, men live in mardana (the male version of zenana), just like women in real society are confined to the zenana or kept behind purdah.

Sister Sara then makes a sharp argument. She says: if a dangerous person escapes from an asylum and causes harm, we lock them back up. So why does Indian society lock up innocent women and let men who cause violence roam free? Sultana admits that in her world, men hold all the power. They are the lawmakers and the masters.

Sister Sara challenges this by saying: "You have given away your natural rights. If women do all the work, what are men even for?" This conversation is the heart of the story. It is a satirical criticism of the patriarchal system, wrapped inside a dream.

Science and Technology in Ladyland

A big part of the story shows the scientific achievements of women in Ladyland. Sister Sara takes Sultana on a tour and explains how things work:

  • Solar cooking: Kitchens use captured sunlight to cook food. No fire, no coal, no smoke.
  • Weather control: One of Ladyland's universities invented a balloon system with pipes that could pull water from clouds, controlling rainfall and stopping floods.
  • Solar heat as a weapon: The second university built instruments to collect and focus solar heat. This was later used to defeat an enemy army. The heat was so intense the soldiers could not bear it and ran away.
  • Flying cars: Sister Sara shows Sultana a flying car that uses hydrogen valves to reduce gravity and travel between cities.

    • These inventions are not just cool science fiction details. They show that women are fully capable of scientific thinking and leadership. This directly counters the old belief that "men have bigger brains." Sister Sara's reply to this stereotype is simple: an elephant has a bigger brain too, and yet humans control elephants.

    How Ladyland Was Built: The History

    Sister Sara explains how Ladyland came to be. About thirty years before the story takes place, a wise and progressive Queen came to power at just thirteen years old. She focused on girls' education, built separate universities for women, and stopped early marriages. No woman was allowed to marry before the age of twenty-one.

    When an enemy country attacked, the male army failed to protect Ladyland. The Lady Principal of the Second University then put forward a plan: let the women fight using their collected solar heat. But before stepping out, the women asked all the men to go inside. The men, who were exhausted and in pain, agreed. The women then went to the battlefield, used the solar weapon, and the enemy fled.

    After this victory, the men were never brought back into public life. The zenana was renamed mardana. Society rebuilt itself under women's leadership. Crime nearly disappeared. Police and magistrates were no longer needed. The workday became just two hours long, since men had earlier wasted six hours every day smoking.

    The Values of Ladyland

    Ladyland also follows a different set of values:

  • Religion means love and truth, nothing more.
  • Liars are not killed but exiled. They can return only if they truly change.
  • Purity is important, and the circle of safe or sacred relationships (mahram) is kept wide.
  • There is no war, no crime, no mosquitoes, no disease in Ladyland. It runs on education, science, and honesty.

    • The Awakening

    The dream ends when Sultana, riding in the flying car with Sister Sara, slips and falls. She wakes up in her own armchair, back in her room. The dream is over, but the questions it raised stay with the reader.

    Why Sultana's Dream is Important

    Sultana's Dream was written more than a hundred years ago, but it still feels relevant today. Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain used the dream format to make a strong feminist point in a safe and fictional way. Her message is simple: women are not weak by nature. The system was designed to make them appear weak. This story is taught in BA English Honours courses across India as one of the earliest and most important works of feminist and postcolonial literature.

    This summary is based on the line-by-line Hindi explanation by The Literature Talks. Watch the full video here: YouTube