A fiery proponent of the independence of women, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) was denied formal education, but emerged as a leading thinker and writer of her time and founded a school for girls. Set against the backdrop of surging nationalism and reform in the twentieth-century Bengal, this selection of writings by Rokeya captures the true spirit of a South Asian proto-feminist who is every bit as radical as her contemporaries-Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. From "Sultana’s Dream", a canonical work of Rokeya, to writings on women’s status in a patriarchal set-up, her comments on "feeble" Bengali society, purdah [veil] system, religion, and the idea of a perfect housewife among others, this work will open up a factual, fictional, and fantastical-utopian world, which remained largely unknown and unheard outside Bengal.
This collection captures the true spirit of a South Asian proto-feminist and opens up a factual, fictional, and fantastical-utopian world that has remained largely unknown and unheard of outside Bengal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ratri Ray
Ratri Ray is a retired University Professor and Head of the Deptt. of English, Patna University. As a student she had a unique career, for she had been awarded three gold medals for her B.A. results and two more for her M.A. results. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in 1981, her field of work being the little-known nineteenth-century poet, T.L. Beddoes. Later, after two decades of extensive and intensive studies, she obtained the D.Litt. degree, the field this time being the comparative study of two mystical poets, Francis Thompson and Nishikanto, a Bengali poet. Her studies of six Shakespearean plays according to the Rasavada had been serialised during the 80s and 90s in the cultural periodical Mother India, published from Pondicherry. She has published numerous research articles in literary journals and anthologies all over India. one of these contributions, a serialised study of 28 articles on the element of myth in Sri aurobindo's poetry is shortly to be published in the book form. At present her research articles on the plays of Sri Aurobindo studied in the light of Rasavada are being serialised in srinvantu, a periodical published from Kolkata.
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