South Asian Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol.2, No.22 (2016) 173–186
ISSN No: 2454-9614
The Sylvan Rural And Straggle Urban- A Comparative Study
On The Changing Scenario In Kamala Markandaya's Novel
“Nectar In A Sieve”
C.Ramkumara
Department of English, Sasurie College of Engineering Tiruppur, Tamilnadu, India.
*Corresponding Author: C. Ramkumar
E-mail: [email protected],
Received: 10/10/2015, Revised: 13/12/2015 and Accepted: 18/04/2016
Abstract
Nectar in a Sieve is linked with numerous multicoloured threads running
through its texture and the central thread is the rural society the village of Nathan. It
is being assaulted by industrialisation establishment of tannery. The title of the
novel, Nectar in a Sieve is taken from the quote lines of Coleridge is significant in the sense
that Nathan and Rukmani continue to work ceaselessly with altering hopes and fears"
The word "Nectar" of the title rings with the mythological and meaningful
associations. According to the ancient myth, "The ocean when churned by the Gods
and demons, yielded many items, including nectar which was claimed tactfully by
the Gods
1. Introduction
Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve is a novel about rural India, describing the
miserable condition of Nathan and his wife Rukmani. Hari Mohan Prasad calls the novel as:
An epic of the Indian life at the grass-roots, a full view of the village
world where peasants grow and live, suffer and endure and emerge
more dignified, more human in their elements with their tattered rags
their dying moans and their obstinate clinging to the soil like the stump
withered all over but it roots delved in the earth.2(98)
Most of the characters in the novel are typically rural. Rukmani, Nathan,
Janaki, Kali, Kunthi, Ira, old granny and many more nameless characters have images
of rural bearing. Their life style, attitudes, manners and speech belong to the countryside.
Hari Mohan Prasad calls Nathan and his wife as “Symbols of teeming millions archetypal
figures like Adam and Eve”. The concept of happiness of the rural people is very simple.
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They live their life on the elemental level with basic necessities, consisting largely of food
cloths and shelter. Rukmani ponders on such vision of happiness:
While the sun shines on you and the fields are green and beautiful
to the eye, and your husband sees beauty in you which no one has seen
before and you have good store of grain laid away for hard times, a
roof on you and a sweet stirring in your body, what more can women
ask for? My heart sang and my feet were light as I went about my
work, getting up at sunrise and going to sleep content. Peace and quiet
were ours. ( NS 2-3)
Rukmani is a daughter of village headman and she was married to a landless
farmer Nathan. Rukmani is highly devoted to her husband and, according to
Indian traditions, does not call his name but addresses him only as husband. The
living conditions of the rural people are almost simple. Nathan's house is a small
thatched mud hut near a paddy field and, there were many huts in the village which
was similar to that of this house. A garland of mango trees are hung across the door
way. It was a symbol of happiness and good fortune. In the matter of food, the rural
people have an elemental simplicity. Their food is simple boiled rice, dhal,
vegetables and curd.
Irawaddy is the first child born of Nathan and Rukmani. As her name sounds odd
she was named after one of the Asia’s greatest rivers. “We called our daughter
Irawaddy, after one of the great rivers of Asia; for of all things water was most precious
to us; but it was too long name for the tiny little thing she was, and soon she became
Ira" (NS16). Rukmani settles into a simple farming life with Nathan a kind and
loving husband. The main problem is that Ira was a only child. Rukmani desperately
wants sons, because giving birth to boys is a point of pride in Indian culture.
Rukmani thinks that it was a punishment for her past sins “I have no sons; only
one child, a girl... why should it be?... Am I not clean and healthy? (NS 20).
So she pours her heart out to Kenny, a white doctor whom the protagonist of
the novel meets, when he was helping her dying mother. Rukmani undergoes fertility
treatment despite the fact that she never mentions it to her husband, Nathan Nathan
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"Wanted a son to continue his line and walk beside him on the land, not a pulling
infant who would take with her dowry and leave nothing but a memorybehind" (NS 16)
When Ira was seven years old her first son Arjun is born then Thambi, Muragan,
Raja and Selvam follow. She has been facing economic hardships. Thus it creates financial
problems in the family. As the rural people are illiterate, Rukmani as an exception knows
how to read and write. She teaches her children at home because she cannot afford to send
them to school. L.M Joshi states that:
The village that has been portrayed in this novel has two faces: one
the peaceful village before the introduction of technology, and the
other after Marling of the tannery. Agriculture is the main occupation in
the village. In fact Kamala Markandaya did not depict the big land
lords and agriculturists but the life of landless farmers who are also the
neglected people. The landless farmers in particular are held in the
clutches of constant fears, as the land being snatched away, the failure
or excess of rains, droughts etc.4 (244)
Kamala Markandaya has not given the description of the village at the
Height of its glory but at its transitional period affected particularly by the
setting of tannery. There was slow change coming to the village where
Srinivasa Iyengar feels "life has not apparently changed for a thousand years,
but now with the invasion of industry and modern technology sinister
consequences issue' (438). For some people the tannery proves to be a boon. The invasion of the tannery in the
village is a sinister. The tannery is the symbol of mechanical power that destroys the traditional basis in the village.
The tannery in the Nectar in a Sieve symbolises the new process of change
which is not acceptable by the villagers. According to the villagers the urban cultures
"had invaded our village with clatter and din, had taken from us the maiden where our
children played and made the bazaar prizes too high for us" (NS 27).
In the beginning, the tannery had generated a flicker of hope in the mind of the
villagers, but it only remained flicker. Rukmani’s despair and gain tells her husband
about the men who have come from a far away city, "They may live in our midst but
I can never accept them, for they lay their hands upon us and we all turned from
tilling to barter, and board our silver since we cannot spend it" (NS 28).
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Due to the establishment of the tannery in the village, there is a change in socio
economic structure of the village, the land of the village is swallowed by the tannery as
a result there is an acute pressure on the land and the tenants evicted. They were looking
for other means of livelihood. The change in the socio-economic structure of the
village changes the psychology of the people and its younger generation.
According to the theory of postmodernism it mainly conveys about the
disappearance of the reality. In this novel Kamala Markandaya portrays the real life
of the peasants and their change into urban, due to the invasion of tannery. Kamala
Markandaya wrote this novel in early independence. She mainly projects the
colonel rule of the Britishers in India. During the invasion many of the rural areas
turned into urban mainly due to industrialisation.
The conflict between tradition and modernity forms a main theme concern
with the novels of Kamala Markandaya. According to John Peter Joseph:
The novels reflect the author’s concern with the evil effects of
industrialisation on the agrarian Indian society and the resultant social,
economic and political subversion. As highly sensitive writer Kamala
Markandaya is conscious of the various powerful agents of change that
have been sweeping across India at present. She voices her genuine
concern in her novels over the degradation in human values in the
wake of industrialisation.(45)
The protagonist of the novel Rukmani feels that she is not prepared to accept
the tannery and its impact on the people because they have caused pollution in the village
atmosphere. The tannery disturbs the tranquil atmosphere of the country side with its
noise, foul smell and crowds. The tannery not only disrupts the ecology but also the
economy of the village in a harsh manner. The entire business and trade structure of
the village community collapses due to establishment of the tannery.
Kamala Markandaya's indication of the crude effect of industrialisation
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through the “ Image of creative evolution” (NS 93) is shown in a most compelling
manner. The original fertile nature of the land is transfigured into a image of
strangulation of the life forces. Though the villagers know that the land does not
provide fruitful production due to the disorders of nature yet they have not lost their
hope of survival. As long as they suffered their land they are sure of their own
identity, since the tannery now consumes more and more land the hope of their
survival through their traditional means is practically destroyed. Joan F Adkins aptly
observes: "The imagery of strangulation is particularly forceful: clear soft, green
fields are replaced by loads of bricks; and the cool silences of village life are now
filled with noise, dusty men and the clamour of their work" (94). In this context, the
meaningful words of Rukmani deserve to be mentioned: "...it had spread like weeds
in an untended garden, strangling whatever life grew in its way. It changed the face
of our village beyond recognition and altered the lives of its inhabitants in a myriad
ways" (NS131).
The tannery is the root cause of the absolute disintegration of Rukmani's
family. When the entire family is on the verge of destitution and starvation,
Rukmani's two sons join the tannery despite their mother's strong opposition. "Few
days later he began at the tannery, and before long Thambi, my second son, had
joined him" (NS 52). Those who have belonged to the earth so far begin to have
a sense of belonging to the machine. The tannery is obviously responsible for their
turning away from their traditional job of cultivation of the land, it has also
developed in them a carving for money.
Due to the invasion of the Britishers, some are were good and helping to the
native peoples in the village. Kenny, a European doctor running a charitable clinic in
this village and who, after years of labour, establishes a charitable hospital there,
looks at the sufferings of the hepless villagers and feels sad and often angry.
Twice in the novel his anger bursts forth, once when the paddy craft has been
destroyed due to the devastating rains and storms, he sees Rukmani with a little rice
in her sari, tucked in at the waist; Kenny, with his face grim and ling and his eyes
burning in his pallid face remarks that she is starving for poverty. Rukmani, as she
watches her home transformed from a quiet village to a dirty village then as a dirty
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town. Other big changes occurs as Ira grows older and turns fourteen, the traditional
age of marriage. A friendly member of the village, Old Granny, finds Ira a nice match
through the common practice of arranged marriage. Ira's groom is the sole inheritor
of some land, and many members of the village turn out for the joyful but
modest celebration.
Ira leaves for her husband's home, and immediately thereafter, a terrible monsoon
strikes. It seems as if the heavens are crying out in agony at the departure of the only
daughter. The family faces near-starvation for the first time, but gets to eat again
when the rains end. Nathan and the sons harvest rice and hunt fish living in the wet
fields.
However, it's not long before disaster strikes again. Ira's husband delivers
Ira back to her parents' home because she has failed to conceive a child. The
family's thin resources become stretched again, and Ruku's two eldest sons go to
work in the tannery to make extra money. Their decision to seek work outside of the
land dashes Nathan's hopes that his sons will take after him. The tannery jobs are
good for a while though, and bring in some much-needed money. As a result the
relative financial security the family experiences, they decide to celebrate the
Festival of Lights, Deepavali, Ruku conceives her last baby. Markandaya describes
Ira situation:
Ira was sitting with her face in her arm,. She looked up as her father
and I came in and her mouth moved a little, loosely as if she had no
control over her Hops. She was lovely still, but strain and hopelessness
and shadowed her eyes and lined her forehead. She seemed almost to
back away as I went to help her. (NS 50)
Ira had been a very beautiful and meek girl. She had in her childhood, she never
gave her parents any trouble. In fact she had been a great help to her mother in her
household work and had nursed her younger brothers. Rukmani recalls vividly how
Ira as a child looked as she sagged against the wall of the hut with the weight of
two of her sleeping brothers, one in her arms and another leaning heavily against
her:
Our children had not seen us so serious, so vehement, before. Three of
my sons huddled together in a corner staring at us with wide eyes, the
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two youngest lay asleep, one in Ira's arms, and the other leaning
heavily against her; and she herself sagged against the wall with their
weight as she sat there on the floor. There was a look on her lovely
soft face that pierced me. (NS 28)
The success of Kamala Markandaya in this novel is due only for her
portrayal of a representative picture of the society, but of a self that of Rukmani with a
fine, sensitive dimension on which the self can record and objectively evaluate the
experiences of life, thereby she brings home the essence of the experiences in terms
of human feelings. The tannery is quite responsible for the moral debasement of Ira,
the only daughter of Rukmani and Nathan. She is forced to take to prostitution in
order to save her youngest brother, Kutti from starvation. But ironically she does not
realize that she will have to bear somebody else's burden when she sells her body to
the people of the town. As Rukmani laments: "Ira had ruined here of at the hands of
the throngs that the tannery attracted. None but these would have laid hands on her,
even at her binding" (NS 131 - 132).
Murugan was unable to get work in the tannery and at the same time finding it
very different to adapt himself to the hereditary work in the fields. In the wake of
changing atmosphere, Murugan the third son of Rukmani and Nathan, leaves the
village for the city in search of a job. Where he marries without the permission of
the elders. Since his marriage is not a traditional marriage he deserts his wife and
children and begins to live with another woman without any compunction. No doubt
the breakdown of such well established traditions affect the lives of the villagers.
The tannery again represents the values of a machinery society in which
human life is meaningless or cheaper than momentary strength. After claiming two
of Rukmani's sons who fall victims to its captivating manoeuvres the tannery claims
another son Raja, there by revealing itself as a monstrous pit of death:
One day Raja went out as usual and did not come back. At dusk they
brought his body home slung between two men, one at the head and
one at the feet. There was a small tickle of blood running from his
mouth, fresh and still bright red, and more blood from a cut in his
head, dark and congealed here and matting his hair. (NS 88)
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They tell Rukmani without any qualm that Raja was caught in the act of
stealing a calf. Skin and when he attempted to escape he was knocked down by a
lathi. They even tell her that tannery is not responsible for the untimely death of Raja
and therefore she should not claim compensation for her dead son:
You may think of it later and try to get compensation. I warn you, it
will not work. Compensation, I thought. What compensation is there
for death? I felt confused, I did not understand what he was getting at.
There was a pause. The timid man said kindly: "he was not brutally
treated or anything you know. They merely tapped him with a lathi, as
he was trying to escape, and he fell. He must have been very weak or
something". (NS 90)
Describing the cruel nature of the heartless tannery officials, Bhagawat S.
Goyal states:
No human feeling flows from these officials hearts, which are as
deadened as a lump of wood. Tannery has killed a boy in his prime and
they have come only to tell Rukmani that she should not think of
claiming compensation. At a time when the sorrowing mother is
cruelly struck by the ghastly absurdity of death, the only concern of
these robots - like monsters is to disclaim all their moral and financial
responsibility of Raja's death. One of them even suggest with a
domestic invidiousness that perhaps it is all for the good of the family,
since there are so many mouths to feed. The stupefied mother, for
whom values like love and fidelity mean much more than money, is
struck dumb with a sense of total comprehension. (NS 113)
The tannery not only plays havoc with the family of Rukmani and Nathan but
it brings destruction to other families also. Unable to compete with other business
people Janaki's family has to quit the village in order to earn the livelihood
somewhere else. Kunthi, who welcomed the advent of industrialisation in the
beginning, now has become a victim of its destructive forces.
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The Society represented over here in this novel, whose atmosphere is
befouled with smog of poverty and hunger. Parched land, ruined harvest, cruel brick
and mortar raised tannery and it's still harsher values provide the physical setting of
this society. Poverty, hunger degradation and death are the derivations or filtrations
from this physical world. These are the human experiences that emanate from, are
exuded by, the soil of Rukmani's village which significantly remains unnamed so as
to stand for any village in rural India. This soil, this setting and these experiences
together constitute a strong stream of society with the authenticity of history and
rootedness of geography. Then there is the stream of the self also. A drought is
described thus:
The drought continued until we lost count of the time. Day after day
the pitiless sun blazed down scorching, whatever still struggled to
grow and baking the earth hard until at last it split and great irregular
fissures gaped in the land. Plants died and grasses rotted, cattle and
sheep crept to the river that was no more and perished therefore lack of
water, lizards and squirrels lay prone and gasping in the blistering
sunlight. (NS 77 - 78)
Tannery moved the village people to the extreme poverty, the experience of hunger
which is described in the following lines:
Thereafter we fed on whatever we could find: the soft ripe fruit of the
prickly pear; a sweet potato or two, blackened and half - rotten, thrown
away by some more prosperous hand, ... Early and late my sons
roamed the countryside, returning with a few bamboo shoots, a stick of
sugarcane left in some deserted field, or a piece of coconut picked
from the gutter in the town ... other farmers and their families, in like
plight to ourselves, were also out searching for food,... and for every
edible plant or root there was a struggle - a desperate competition that
made enemies of friends and put an end to humanity (NS 87)
Finally the establishment of the tannery has led to the complete dispossession
of the family of Nathan and Rukmani. The land which they have been perseveringly
cultivating for nearly three decades has been purchased by the tannery owners at a
high price from the land lord. The family of Nathan and Rukmani suffers the
cruellest blow when they are asked to move out of the land. Nathan sadly articulates
his fear as well as his wife's, "where are we to go? What shall we do ?" (NS 133).
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The peasant is very much attached to his land even if he is merely a tenant. Land
whether it is his own or the property of somebody else always gives him hope.
Therefore, the deal of being uprooted from his land becomes a horrible
and nightmarish experience to him.
With regard to Rukmani's self is that it is a mother's self - a self is being
dignified, creative, although it suffers the extremity of pain and despair. The
Rukmani's are the salt of the earth, they will not lose their flavour. It is all the more
necessary, therefore, to protect these selves in the interest of society, for the well
being of humanity. Aruadhathi Chatterjee, in a recent article on Nectar in a Sieve
titled "Rukmani, the mother figure in Nectar in a Sieve" writes:
Rukmani, the mother figure, symbolizes the mother earth, is the virgin
soil the source, the origin, the well spring, the life-giver, the
Support, the sustainer, the nourisher and even more, the last resort,
the consoler, the healer. It is the positive, sustaining force of life… her
integrity is never on the brink of collapse (NS92)
The entire family of Nathan has to undergo a harrowing experience because
they do not know that under the existing socio-economic system even the village
does not belong to the villagers but to those who own the land there. After the land is
forcibly taken away Nathan feels as though his being becomes desperate. The
emphatic words of Rukmani connection with the evils of industrialization deserve
to be mentioned here.
Somehow I had always felt the Tannery would eventually, be our
undoing, I had know it since the day cards had come with their loads
of bricks and noisy dusty men…It had changed the face of our village
beyond our recognition and altered the lives of its inhabitants in
myriad ways… my sons had left because it frowned on them, one of
them had been destroyed by its ruthlessness, And there were others its
touch had scathed, Janaki and her family, the hapless kannan, Kunthi
even. (NS 133-134)
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Rukmani becomes a pathetic woman when her land is forcibly taken away
from her, while feeling extremely sorry for her present and desperate condition she
says, “This hut with all memories was to be taken from us, for it stood on land that
belonged to another, And the land itself by which we lived. It is a cruel thing. I
thought”. (NS 135). After eviction from the land and the familiar rural community
Nathan and Rukmani are forced to migrate to the sterile and unsympathetic urban
society, owing to their sons, Murugan. Supposed to be working in the city.
Nathan and Rukmani will have to move in with Murugan, their son in the city whom
They haven't heard from in years. Ira and her baby, Sacrabani, will stay behind and
live with Selvam. Rukmani and Nathan make the long journey to the unnamed city,
only to discover that their son Murugan has deserted his wife and is nowhere to
be found. His wife and children lived in a miserable condition in a one room in
the servant quarters in the compound of an officer's residence. Rukmani describes
the condition in which her son's wife lives;
I looked about the room in which my son's wife lived, and I knew that
at any rate we couldn't stay here. Such resources as she had were not
enough even for herself, they would certainly not stretch to cover our
needs. Except for a small bowlful of rice there seemed to be no other
food in the place. The little boy was thin and hallow - cheeked, his
mother looked worn and haggard and was obviously hardly able to
feed the baby who kept whimpering fitfully. The cry of hunger which
is different to the other cries of infants. (NS 161)
To put plainly, there's no way she'll be able to keep them. The old couple is
basically out on their own: all their goods and their money were stolen earlier on the
journey, and they have nowhere to stay. They end up taking refuge in a temple
where the cities destitute are fed dinner and given shelter. All they can think of is
returning home. Rukmani decides to make a little money by setting up as a letterwriter and reader in the market. Business isn't great, but every little bit helps.
Things take a turn for the better when Puli, a street orphan whom Ruku and
Nathan met on the way to find Murugan’s house, shows up again in their life. Puli is
fiercely independent, but he has leprosy a serious illness that has taken his fingers.
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He unofficially adopts Nathan and Ruku, and he comes up with the plan of working
at a Stone quarry, gathering rocks for pay. With this job, Ruku, Nathan, and Puli
establish something of a family routine, and begin saving up money to return to their
village. While returning from work one evening, Nathan, who has been ailing for
some time, collapses on the road near a gutter. That very night he dies. The final
moment of Rukmani 's separation from her beloved husband is described as:
“so I laid my face on his hand and for a while his breath fell soft and light as a rose
petal on my cheek, then he sighed as if in weariness and turned his face to me, and
so his gentle spirit withdrew and the light went out of his eyes" (NS 185).
Towards the end of the novel there arouses subtle irony, which may escape our
Attention because of its brevity, though succinct. When Rukmani and Puli reach
home with the dead body of Nathan, her children do not know that their father is
no more. On such an occasion people beat their hearts and shed torrents of tears.
But here we find nothing of the sort.
Do not worry, Selvam said, "We shall manage".
There was silence; I struggled to say what had to be said.
"Do not talk of it", he said tenderly, "Unless you must".
"It was a gentle passing", I said. "I will tell you later". (NS 186)
Kamala Markandaya makes it very clear that Rukmani and Nathan,
epitomizing the whole of the Indian agrarian order, happen to be the desperate
victims of three predominant evils namely nature, zamindari system and
industrialisation. She meticulously brings out the distinction between man as a
victim of nature and as a victim of modern industrialisation. Though the peasants
who earn their livelihood by the soil cannot very often be sure of a good harvest
every year, yet they can be hopeful of retaining their identity because to them the
land symbolizes hopes. But man as the victim of modern technology is assaulted by
agents of implacable and unrelenting factors.
While describing about the evils of industrialisation, Kamala Markandaya
does not rail to strike both at nature and at landlordism in rural India. Pointing out
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how the disastrous vagaries of nature ruin the blissful harmony of the peasant’s life,
Rukmani says: “Nature is like a wild animal that you have trained to work to you. So
long as you are vigilant and walk warily with thought and care, so long will it give
you its aid; but look away for an instant, he heedless or forgetful, and it has you by
your throat” (NS 39).
A sensitive writer like Kamala Markandaya knows well that despite the
inherent and inescapable hurdles embedded in the life of a peasant he can survive
with the inner strength of which he draws from the soil. But with the advent of the
tannery, a new intimidating force, he is confused and therefore he suffers a lot when
tragic incidents take place.
Many critics of the novel see it as a presentation of the conflict between
traditional life and modern industrialisation. They consider that Rukmani, devoted
wife of Nathan, a tenant farmer, living a simple and harmonious life in her little
village. Shiva K. Kumar states that: "suddenly finds within this Garden of Eden a
serpent in the form of a tannery that begins to rear its ugly head, devouring green
open spaces, polluting the clear, wholesome atmosphere, and tempting simple
gullible peasants into greed, ambition, and immortality" (86). However, to see this
novel as a system of such simple and obvious opposition is to oversimplify it. This
would mean ignoring the goodness offered by modernity in the form of Dr.
Kenington, a missionary doctor in the novel.
Conclusion
To say that Kamala Markandaya is in favour of obsolete rigidities and the
orthodoxical nature of traditional life will be only to take a lopsided view of her
novel. As a writer she understands the complexities of present life, she is fully
aware of the inescapable demands of modernization. She, as a woman with historical
consciousness, feels that change is quite inevitable. Since the entire world is rapidly
changing in response to various requirements and necessities arising out of modern
science and technology every society ought to wake up from its slumbering state and
try to fit into the stream of meaningful modern life.
References:
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Primary Sources:
Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve. New York: Signet Classics, 1954. Print.
Jaisingh, Hari. India Between Dream and Reality. New Delhi: Allied Private,
1989. Print.
K. R. S Iyengar. “The Women Novelist” Indian Writing in English. 2nd ed. New
Delhi: Asia House,1973. Print.
K. R. S Iyengar. Indian Writing in English. Bombay: Asia House,1973. Print.
Lawenson, Diana T. and Swingen Wood, Allan. The Sociology of Literature.
London,1972. Print.
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