Nectar in a Sieve

Nectar in a Sieve uses India’s history—specifically, its freedom from British rule and the partition between India and Pakistan—as the background for its plot. Markandaya weaves these significant moments into Rukmani’s daily life, creating tension between many characters. One of the primary conflicts the author develops is between those with wealth (often white, landowning individuals) and those without it (such as farmers and other working-class professions). Markandaya uses Rukmani’s first-person narration as a lens for exploring issues in postcolonial India, particularly how the new social, economic, and political dynamics affect everyday life.

Despite the novel being fiction, Markandaya structures the events of the narrative like a memoir by telling contained stories or significant events from Rukmani’s life in each chapter as opposed to using a continuous narrative flow. The novel’s plot follows Rukmani’s life from when she marries Nathan to when she returns home after his death to live with her family again, but Rukmani skips over large periods of time. The moments Markandaya chooses to focus on and explore are challenges that shape Rukmani and her family. Rukmani curates her life, intending to present her family’s hardships, suffering, strength, endurance, and survival. Though Rukmani is a fictional character, her story reflects the lived experiences of many Indian citizens during this time period.

The author implicitly emphasizes the events of Rukmani’s life rather than stressing how the story ends or how conflicts may be resolved by narrating the ending in the first chapter. Rukmani explains that she is old and reveals her family structure, stating, “[I live with] my son, my daughter, and Puli, the child I clung to who was not mine, and he no longer a child. Puli is with me because I tempted him, out of my desperation I lured him away from his soil to mine” (3). This emphasizes that the ending is not as important as the journey to get there, and it also sets the novel’s tone. Rukmani alludes to moments of desperation, hardship, and fear, tracing what happened and bringing attention to who remains as she relates her life events. Aside from Nathan, the text focuses largely on Ira and Selvam, Rukmani’s two children with whom she lives. Though she does not introduce Puli until Part 2, she foreshadows that he will be significant.

The first chapter also introduces one of the novel’s primary themes: Poverty and Survival in a Changing World. Rukmani’s family cannot afford a large dowry for her, so she marries Nathan, a tenant farmer who dreams of owning his land. When she arrives at his house, she expresses her fear for her new living situation. She remembers, “I wanted to cry. This mud hut, nothing but mud and thatch, was my home. My knees gave, first the cramped one, then the other, and I sank down” (6). Rukmani’s socioeconomic status changes drastically through her marriage. She comes from power (or perceived power) and descends to having little. Her father was a landowner, and so for a time, her family didn’t have to answer to others. The dynamic changes, represented by the allusions to the Collector, a colonial officer. Markandaya uses this exposition to highlight the effects of colonization and how even the most privileged colonial subjects cannot control their circumstances.

From a young age, Rukmani learns that India’s power dynamic shifts away from its people. Her brother informs her, "There is a Collector, who comes to the villages once a year, and to him is the power, and to those he appoints; not to the headman” (4). Though she initially resists this statement, she recognizes it as the truth as she grows and sees the power that people like the Collectors have. This sets the tone for the rest of Rukmani’s life, where she must always question where authority lies and to whom she must listen. She becomes accustomed to this and subsequently struggles to understand when her children fight for more than she and Nathan had, creating further conflict between her, her family, and outside influences. This dynamic of a resigned older generation in contrast to a spirited younger one also embodies India’s eventual shift toward independence.