Woman as a symbol of sacrifice in Kamala Markandaya’s Novel Nectar in a sieve

Abstract

Kamala Markandaya portrayal of life in the little villages and big cities of Indian rips open the sordid, the pathetic and the tragic side of life its perpetual fight against starvation in the pre and post Independent India. Her novels thus become faithful records of the means and ways of exploitation in various forms. An interesting aspect of modernity is the creative release of feminine sensibility. Women in modern India have not only played exciting and dangerous roles in the struggles for Independence but are also touched and toned by the consciousness of cultural changes. Kamala Markandaya’s novels seem to be fully reflective of the awakened feminine sensibility in modern India as she attempts to project the image of the changing traditional society. Women have always assessed themselves by the parameters marked by men. This accounts for the complacency in women as subalterns. They have been passive and submissive because this was the feminine stereotype that was accorded to them. It is incredible that even after sixty four years of freedom, Women’s empowerment is still in its nascent stage. Experience thus forms a vital ingredient in all women’s writings and this in turn serves to connect to the feminine world.