ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the construction of the modern Bengali Muslim woman, and the connections that can be drawn between the formation of this identity and the emergence of a notion of a Bengali nation. The main contours of this nation are drawn along religious, community and linguistic affi liations. Identity, both at the individual or community/national level, has always been fl uid, as its various dimensions are foregrounded at different times. Hence the modernity that is being formed is also shifting, as its bases are continuously reformed and reconstituted. In this chapter, we will trace the formation of modernity of the Bengali Muslim woman through the writings of two women: Nawab Faizunnessa Chaudhurani (1834-1903) and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932). The excerpts quoted above mark the milestones in this journey. The fi rst, from Rupjalal in 1876, warns women against male wiles, and is uttered by an
older woman to console the young jilted wife who is deceived by her husband. She is warned that love and marriage are thorny tracts that women traverse, and never bring the promised happiness and fulfi llment. The younger woman is warned against trusting any man, including her husband. The poet steps forward in her own persona, and the authorial voice asserts that men are not to be depended upon. The latter excerpt, from Sultana’s Dream, draws the picture of an ideal world governed by women, where men have been banished to the domestic realm. This complete reversal of gender positions and roles is recognized in the annals of feminist literary criticism as an early depiction of a feminist utopia.
