(i) In the early decades of the 20th century, women in South India began writing novels and short stories. (ii) A reason for the popularity of novels among women was that it allowed for a new conception of womanhood. (iii) Some women authors also wrote about women who changed the world of both men and women. (iv) Rokeya Hossein wrote a satiric fantasy in English called ‘Sultana’s Dream’ (1905) which shows a topsy-turvy world in which women take the place of men. (v) Hunnah Mullens, a Christian missionary and the author of ‘Karuna O Phulmonir Bibaran’ (1852), wrote the first novel in Bengali, which tells her readers that she wrote in secret.