Sultana’s dream

Sultana's Dream, first published in a Madras magazine in 1905-a decade before Charlotte Perkins Gilman began to serialize Herland- is a skillfully drawn, witty and very appealing tale of 'reverse purdah.' It posits a country, called Ladyland, in which women have taken over the public sphere and men are confined to the private, hidden world of seclusion. Moreover, women have rid Ladyland of war and turned science, including the invention of air travel and the use of solar power, to peaceful, productive ends.