Cultural Study of the Indian Village as portrayed in select Indian English Novels

Abstract

This paper has attempted a cultural study of the Indian village. This study is based on Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. The Indian village has been a concrete ground for the ancient cultural practices. This study deals with the socio-economic changes that swept over the country after Independence and have led to the erosion and undermining of traditional values. Despite the strong intrusion of urban culture, Indian rural societies are still community based. Interdependence in rural life provides a sense of unity among residents of a village. Nectar in a sieve deals with the conflict between a traditional agricultural society and an emerging industrial capitalistic society. The novel touches upon several important social phenomena, the importance of traditional social and cultural practices and the unwillingness of the people to change. Arundhati Roy in her novel The God of Small Things presents the deep-seated practice of untouchability and gender discrimination in a community that is highly literate and affluent. So finely entrenched is this segregation in the rural society that even a casteless religion like Christianity and a classless ideology like Marxism failed to bring about changes in the mindset of the people.