A celebration of women writers from the Indian subcontinent   Premium

On International Women’s Day, profiles of trailblazing South Asian women authors whose writing smash patriarchy, injustices and inequalities in society

Several women authors of the Indian subcontinent have made a mark with their bold and incisive writing.

From the legendary Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, the first woman Muslim writer from colonial Bengal, who wrote about the oppression of women and their liberation at a time when it was unthinkable to the crusader-writer Mahasweta Devi, inspired by the ordinary Adivasi, Dalit and the marginalised citizens, the region has given birth to many women writers who have challenged the absurdities of society and risen against its various challenges to their progress and upliftment.

There are quite a few books that examine patriarchal mindsets in society and highlight how women are held back by ignorance of their rights.

Sultanar Swapna written by Rokeya Hossain in 1905 is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a feminist utopia, wherein she speaks of role reversal to show society what women are capable of if given the opportunity.

Over the decades, many women writers in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh followed in her footsteps, seeking emancipation of women.

Attia Hosain was among the first Indians who wrote in English, holding a mirror to reality. Her only published novel, Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961), gives a perspective on Partition, nationalism and her awakening into feminism. Even after more than 60 years of its publication, the book is relevant because it captures disdain for shallow patriotism via a 15-year-old protagonist, impacted by Partition. Though the story begins with the syncretic spirit of undivided India and is built on the over-arching frame of the freedom movement, it is also the teenager’s life story amid upheavals; how she battles to emancipate herself from the shackles of religion and convention, given the political rhetoric of hatred over the separation of India and Pakistan. The chilling resonance with contemporary India cannot be glossed over.

Cracking India (1991) by Bapsi Sidhwa, the Pakistani novelist with Gujarati-Parsi roots, is another Partition story, with the eruption of religious, ethnic and radical violence thereafter. Partially autobiographical, it talks about the unique position of Parsis in Lahore and in India and how the community left an indelible impression in places that were communally transformed in no time. Books like these, which recall the forgotten values of humanity even in the time of hate, are necessary reading for the times.