NECTAR IN A SIEVE by Kamala Markandaya
by Beverly Mantyh
Markandaya chronicles a woman who loves despite the cost. We hear the story through the memories of Rukmani, a peasant woman in early 20th century India. The fourth daughter of a village head man, Rukmani’s father teaches her to read and write despite accusations of impracticality. Rukmani’s parents arrange a wedding to a man she has never seen before, who lives in a town she has never visited. “…they could not find me a rich husband, and married me to a tenant farmer who was poor in everything but in love and care for me, his wife, whom he took at the age of twelve.”
The poverty of her newlywed husband shocks Rukmani. Their home consists of a two room mud hut next to rice paddies on rented ground. Her husband senses her dismay and attempts to comfort her, but she feigns tiredness so as not to hurt his feelings. She consoles herself by looking for what is good in her new life. Despite being strangers on their wedding day, their care for one another is considerate and constant.
Markandaya illustrates India’s problems through Rukmani and Nathan’s story. They eventually have one daughter, Irawaddy, and anxiously wait six more years for another child. Rukmani ceases to hope in the fertility charm from her mother and, as a last resort, consults an English doctor. Unsure of her husband’s reaction to the foreigner, she keeps her medical care to herself. She is blessed with six sons in rapid succession. The blessing of sons is huge, but so are the financial responsibilities. When the rice harvest fails, their food is stretched thin. The growing boys are not enthusiastic about working on their father’s rice paddy, with the profits benefitting the landlord. Their family is caught in a hand-to-mouth situation, and often the hand comes up empty.
Poverty is the major antagonist in Nectar in a Sieve, but the politics of industrialization, gender, and philosophical passivity are also addressed by Markandaya. The opening of a western style tannery in the village brings mixed blessings. The villagers are taken advantage of and the price of food goes up for everyone. After attempting to form a union at the tannery, Rukmani’s two oldest sons are forced to move away to find work. Their third son disappears after moving to the city to work as a servant. The fourth son is killed by a tannery guard while foraging for food. Their daughter’s marriage fails because of infertility; she eventually resorts to prostitution to feed her youngest starving brother. Another failed crop results in the eviction of Nathan and Rukmani from their land. There are no convenient endings.
How could a novel like this have sold a million copies? The stark, deadly reality of poverty is shocking and uncomfortable. Nectar in a Sieve succeeds because it is a love story; a beautiful, truthful, straight forward, honest memoir. The heroic absence of bitterness, blame, or self-pity shines through Rukmani’s narrative. This is an enlightening, engaging novel about the human capacity for love.
Discussion Questions:
- Kenny, the British doctor, speaks to Rukmani: “You must cry out if you want help.… Aquiescent imbeciles, do you think spiritual grace comes from being in want or suffering?” Rukmani thinks, “...what if we gave in to our troubles at every step! ...for is not a man’s spirit given to him to rise above his misfortunes?...What profit is it to bewail that which has always been and cannot change?” Is Kenny justified in his accusation of false virtue? Do Rukmani’s cultural philosophies maintain her dignity at the cost of excessive passivity?
- As the sorrow and pain of Rukmani’s story increases, her voice becomes more and more detached, almost cold. Does this make Rukmani’s character unsympathetic?Consider this especially in the context of Kuti, her youngest son.
- India’s government began a program in 2008 that pays $3,000 for poor families to birth and raise daughters. (More girls are aborted than boys in India.) Nectar in a Sieve was published in 1954, before abortion was legal. Does the inordinate number of female abortions logically follow the issues of undervaluing female children raised by Markandaya?
