Summary
Sultana relaxes in her bedroom, “lazily” thinking about the “condition of Indian womanhood.” As she gazes at the night sky, noting the beautiful stars, her friend Sister Sara comes into the room. Sister Sara wishes Sultana a good morning, which Sultana finds amusing, since it is still night. Sultana responds to Sara, asking her how she is doing. Sister Sara says that she is doing well and invites Sultana to come out and look at the garden.
Sultana agrees to go out to the garden with Sister Sara, noting that she can have a “pleasant” walk because the “menservants” are asleep. Sultana recalls how she and Sister Sara used to walk often when they lived in Darjeeling, where they would hold hands, talk, and walk through the botanical gardens. When the two women step outside, Sultana is surprised to see that it is already morning. Sultana at first feels shy, even though there are no men around.
Sultana notices that people around her are making jokes about her. Sister Sara tells her that they are saying Sultana looks like a man—“shy and timid." At that moment, Sultana realizes that the woman she is walking with is not actually Sister Sara, and is a different woman who Sultana doesn’t know. Sultana begins to feel anxious because she is not used to walking around without a veil because she is a purdahnishin woman: a woman who practices purdah, the tradition of female seclusion practiced in Muslim and Hindu communities.
The woman (who Sultana continues to refer to as Sister Sara) tells Sultana that she doesn’t need to be afraid of seeing men here because they are in Ladyland. Sultana looks around and realizes how beautiful the land is; there are flowers and plants blooming everywhere. Sultana wonders where the men are and Sister Sara explains that the women have shut the men up indoors, in the same way that women are typically kept in the zenana—the female-only areas of a house where women would be secluded.
Sultana at first finds the idea of shutting the men up absurd, but as Sister Sara explains the reasoning behind the men’s seclusion, Sultana comes around and begins to realize how “logical” it is. Sister Sara tells Sultana that it is unfair for women to be secluded when men, who behave like wild animals and make the streets unsafe for women, are free. Sister Sara likens men to lunatics in an asylum and, by this logic, states that they should be kept out of society. Sultana replies that in her country—India—the men are let free and it is the women who are kept away because in India, “man is lord and master” who possesses total power.
When Sister Sara asks Sultana why women allow themselves to be shut away, Sultana states that it is because men are stronger. Sister Sara rejects this logic, instead using a metaphor to explain to Sultana that even if a lion is stronger than a man, man does not let the lion dominate him. Sister Sara accuses women of blindly accepting the injustice that is being done to them. Sister Sara then tells Sultana that men should be shut up because they are incapable of doing anything. When Sultana asks Sister Sara how they manage to shut the men up, Sister Sara only gives a coy smile.
Analysis
The start of the story begins in a dream-like space, where Sultana finds herself in an unknown world, emerging from night into the daylight of Ladyland. This passage from darkness into light serves as a metaphor for Sultana’s transition from the “darkness” of patriarchal India into the female-governed society in Ladyland. The landscape of Ladyland—one that is filled with a variety of flowers, plants, moss, and grass—is another figurative detail that symbolizes the idyll that Ladyland offers. The safety and refuge that Ladyland provides for women allow them to bloom, just like flowers and wildlife within it are able to blossom. Without men, women are able to transform their society into an abundantly beautiful space.
Ladyland is a reversal of the Hindu and Muslim religious practice of “purdah,” in which women are restricted to female-only rooms or spaces that are referred to as zenanas. This practice was common among Hindu elites and greatly restricted a woman’s behavior, freedom, and movement. While keeping purdah, women often wore garments, such as a veil, that covered their whole bodies. Sultana alludes to this practice when she mentions how uncomfortable and exposed she feels without her veil, which displays how Sultana is a woman that is not yet accustomed to the radical female empowerment practiced in Ladyland.
In Ladyland, purdah is inverted; instead of women being secluded, it is men who are kept separate from society and unable to move outside of their restricted areas. Ladyland creates a matriarchal society, one that is ruled by women, rather than functioning as a patriarchal society that is led by men and male-dominated structures. Sister Sara’s attitude towards men is a radically open condemnation of male behavior. She likens them to lunatics who deserve to be kept in a secluded “asylum,” accusing them of making the outside world unsafe for women, which makes it necessary for them to be separated from regular society. Sister Sara also characterizes men as “timid,” a reversal of what a man is traditionally seen as.
Sultana voices more conservative doubts which Sister Sara rebuts over the course of their conversation, explaining to Sultana how her perspective has been perverted by standard Indian patriarchal practices. Sister Sara's own perspective, on the other hand, completely contrasts with Sultana’s. She accuses women of passively accepting male domination, stating that women have lost their “natural rights” to freedom. As with other opinions that Sister Sara voices, the assertion that women have a natural right to liberty is a radical one for the time at which this story was written.
Throughout Sister Sara and Sultana’s conversation, Sister Sara uses metaphors and an allegory to explain societal structures, beliefs, and power dynamics. She compares men to lunatics and, when Sultana attempts to express her belief that women are dominated by men because they are weaker, Sister Sara rejects this idea by using the lion-man allegory. She explains that even though lions are stronger than men, men do not let lions dominate them. Thus, even though men may be physically stronger than women, women should not let men dominate them.
