Nectar In A Sieve

In Kamala Markandaya’s novel, Nectar in a Sieve, the woman of great courage, Rukmani, is forced onto the commencement of a fast changing India caused by an increase in economic activity, urbanization and centralization of power. Rukmani resists and then is forced to conform to changes in her environment. Unlike those around her who threw their past away with both hands that they “might be the readier to grasp the present,” Rukmani “stood by in pain, envying such easy reconciliation” (Markandaya 29). Markandaya writes about Rukmani’s attempt to recover the aspects of her rural life that she cares most about, revealing her adoration for a traditional rural life and her belief that all women enjoy amicable, personal relationships with their outer

surroundings. The author conveys her ideals that traditional/conservative Indian women who challenge the change of their village will keep order within the chaos developing throughout their social environment, precluding Rukmani from falling under the category of the stereotypical passive peasant woman. Rukmani's improvement at the criticism of her community and the development her own views and beliefs on the future of India is advanced through her conversations with Kenny, the doctor that she begins to develop a relationship with. In Rukmani's character and newfound sense of action, you can establish relations to ecofeminist theory, a form of feminist criticism, about the relationship between rural women in India and the environment. Through gardening and tending to their farm, Rukmani develops a certain closeness with the land, spoken of in ecofeminist writing on body and spirituality, and her reliance on the land in order to survive reveals a vulnerability that troubles the importance of the relationship between her and nature. In the end of the novel, Rukmani would rather be in touch with nature than experience the isolation of a city life. The novel emphasizes the importance of a community that connects with something more than human, through Rukmani's adoption of a homeless boy.
Feminist criticism is a study of how literature “reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women”(Tyson 83).

However, like those who follow all other critical theories, feminist critics have multiple different opinions on all of the issues their specific criticism study’s. In fact, some feminists call their field “feminisms” in order to emphasize the variety of points of view of those who follow and offer ways of thinking that challenge the accustomed tendency to believe there is a single point of view that is ruled over all. Many of those new to the study of feminist theory, both genders, have decided, before being willing to open up to multiple points of view, that they “are not feminists because they don’t share whatever feminist point of view they have found the most objectionable” (Tyson 83). Feminists have observed the belief that men are superior to women being used, in order to “justify and maintain the male monopoly of positions of economic, political, and social power.” Or, to keep it simple, to strip women of their power by denying them the educational and occupational opportunities of obtaining economic, political, and social power. That is, “the inferior position long occupied by women in patriarchal society has been culturally, not biologically, produced” (Tyson

86).
Ecofeminism, a type of feminist criticism, is a term that combines feminism and ecology. Those who promote ecofeminism say that paternalistic/capitalistic society has led to a harmful split between nature and culture. Loosely defined, ecofeminism is a philosophical and political movement linking ecological concerns with feminist ones, regarding both as resulting from male domination of society. In the beginning of the novel, Markandaya begins to focus on Rukmani’s relationship with the land and her environment. Rukmani begins to tell her story first recalling this moment at the start of her marriage, “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 a good store of grain laid away for hard times, a roof over you and a sweet stirring in your body, what more can a woman ask for?” (Markandaya 8). The way she explains the moment with such ease, and the way she links the beauty of the fields with the beauty her husband saw in her, reflects a peaceful and fulfilled sense of life that sets the tone for the events to come later in the novel. Markandaya carefully generates change to Rukmani’s peaceful early life by incorporating some foreshadowing to hint to the changes ahead. With the use of some subtle dramatic irony, readers continue to be aware of these changes while the characters throughout the novel have hope for their ideas in the future which seems to have sights of things returning to normal. After marrying and returning to Nathan’s village far from Rukmani’s family home, he is determined to prove himself in order for Rukmani to view him as a dependable husband. He picks up a handful of grain and promises that with “Such harvests as this, you shall not want for anything” (Markandaya 6). With this turn towards the future Markandaya extinguishes an suspicion in her characters that things are taking a turn for the worst. The hope for a bright future is shown through the capability of her husband, and the rice paddy that he holds in his hands. Through this scene, Markandaya creates a symbolic relationship between the farmers and nature. The land later becomes the most important aspect of their lives, and Rukmani finds happiness in tending to the land.
The garden has a special Rukmani’s life and it takes a big part in her coming-of-age.

Being so young and married at twelve, Rukmani experiences her own development (physical, emotional, sexual and psychological) through her work in the garden and the growth of her vegetables. Planting pumpkins for her first time is a moving process for her. In the passage describing the pumpkins, the most shocking part was not the satisfaction with herself or pride she feels, but the pleasure that the growth brings out of her. “Pumpkins began to form, which, fattening on soil and sun and water, swelled daily larger and larger and ripened to yellow and red, until at last they were ready to eat, and I cut one and took it in. When Nathan saw it he was full of admiration... “One would have thought you had never seen a pumpkin before,” I said, though pleased with him and myself, keeping my eyes down. “Not from our land,” said Nathan. “Therefore it is precious, and you, Ruku, are indeed a clever woman.” I tried not to show my pride. I tried to be offhand. I put the pumpkin away. But pleasure was making my pulse beat; the blood, unbidden, came hot and surging to my face” (Markandaya 10). Markandaya describes Rukmani’s pleasure in such an upfront and open way. The use of symbolism through nature does not convey sex as natural, it conveys relationships of pleasure/connectedness. This suggests the idea that the fertility of nature is linked to the maturation Rukmani experiences sexually.. This

embracement nature is one of the causes that connects her to their land and that furthers her commitment to it later in the novel. The emphasis on life and most importantly the female body as giver of life is shown in the way Rukmani experiences a newfound sort of spirituality through her connection with the pumpkins.
Though Rukmani first appears to be the perfect example of a simple, typical Western ecofeminist point of view, she is actually a character with multiple layers and deeper meaning to her, with a complex relationship to a nature that is not romantic. Rukmani’s character does not conform to the stereotypes of a typical traditional/conservative indian woman. Markandaya writes this novel and conveys Rukmani’s character in a way that keeps that image but pushes the boundaries and breaks certain ideals or expectations. The goal of ecofeminism is reading past the dismissal of this stereotype and working to acknowledge the relationship she grew with the land. Markandaya achieved this by balancing the strength of her love for nature with having to face the harsh reality of crop failure and starvation.