Land and Women: Subjugation as a Shared Destiny in Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve

Abstract

Relationship of female and land is as old as the human civilization. However, this aspect of mutual attachment was hardly recognized until the last few decades. However, with the rise of ecological consciousness, people have started to explore the relationship between females and land. In this perspective, Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve depicts the hardships imposed on female, just because she is a woman. As tradition goes, female is mother because she reproduces and can preserve and protect the entire cycle of life. However, this fact is often taken in a lighter version and, as a result females are condemned within the periphery of house and domesticity. Land is one such sure forms of domination that has been a part of females, since time inmemorial. Females have been associated with land and its production, as if they are inseparable. This fact, however, is not taken as a positive source of inspiration, but instead has become yet another form of domination imposed on females. Marakandaya projects Rukmani, associated for a lifelong time with the land and its outcome.