“Nectar in a Sieve” has been described by the author ( Kamala Markandaya ) as a Novel of Rural India. For those who struggle
to understand this land, its ethos and its people; and the gulf that exists between rural and urban India ( the so-called rural-urban divide ) I could not recommend this book strongly enough. Though it was published in 1965, it is as true now as it was then or it was a hundred years before – in effect it is a novel of eternal India, and portrays a timeless landscape that never seems to change. But, paradoxically, it is also a novel of change for it depicts the change that occurs in the
village with the coming of industrialization, depicted here by “The Tannery” ( as if it were the product of some alien, faraway land ) and its associated officialdom; officials being viewed with a certain amount of trepidation if not outright suspicion ( as the remnants/inheritors of a bygone colonial era ) in many parts of rural India.
Some of the themes explored in this novel are the nature of the relationship between Rukmani ( whose love for her husband and her children sustains her in life ) and Kunthi ( the village beauty). The
author also explores the hostility that Kunthi feels towards Rukmani.
The question the author asks the readers ( though not in so many words ) is whether literacy is of any help in a village society. In other words, does Rukmani’s ability to read and write benefit her at any time ?
Perhaps in a more philosophical tone, the core of Kamala Markandaya’s message is that through all the trials and the tribulations, the family’s unity and spirit remains intact and unbroken; that in essence the family is the bedrock upon which society rests and around which life revolves in rural India. It is also a novel of deprivation and of want, and how the family unit copes with it and survives, much as eternal India has survived over the centuries and millennia.
To the reader who is not familiar with the Hindustani( Indian ) language, the author has included a short but useful glossary of commonly used words.