Nectar In A Sieve
Nectar in a Sieve shows the impact of modernization on rural India through the story of Rukmani and her husband Nathan, and their struggle with the change that happened all around them, yet seemed to leave them behind. The book shows the effect that change had on their family, their village, and how it shaped their lives. Modernization played a significant role and had a big impact on family life, social and class division, and the land in rural India.
Once the tannery moved into their small Indian village, everything began to change for the families of rural farmers including their son’s views on working the land like the generations of men before them had. They no longer wanted to be poor lowly farmers who couldn’t afford the land they cared …show more content…
While the rich were getting richer off of the tannery and new shops, the poor were uneducated and left behind. Once the tannery came into a village prices for everything went up, so while a farmer could sell their goods for more money, they also had to spend more money on their basic needs which made it practically impossible for them to get ahead or even catch up. The modernization led to families having to take drastic measures just to be able to provide for their families, which caused them to sell their possessions and what little they had just to keep their homes from being taken from them. “Rather these should go, said Nathan, that that the land should be taken from us; we can do without these, but if the land is gone our livelihood is gone” (78); those that had so little would sell or do whatever it took to keep their land and families alive. Some women went to extreme measures to help provide for their families by selling their bodies and making little money through prostitution, “but the man who finds a woman in the street…throws her a few coins that he might possess her, holds her unresisting to whatever he does to her” (118). Some women had no other option other than prostitution, and although they were only trying to provide for their families, the people in their communities shamed them for their desperate actions. The modernization and change of rural India led to the oppression of the poor, shaming of poor women, and left many hungry and
Once the tannery moved into their small Indian village, everything began to change for the families of rural farmers including their son’s views on working the land like the generations of men before them had. They no longer wanted to be poor lowly farmers who couldn’t afford the land they cared …show more content…
While the rich were getting richer off of the tannery and new shops, the poor were uneducated and left behind. Once the tannery came into a village prices for everything went up, so while a farmer could sell their goods for more money, they also had to spend more money on their basic needs which made it practically impossible for them to get ahead or even catch up. The modernization led to families having to take drastic measures just to be able to provide for their families, which caused them to sell their possessions and what little they had just to keep their homes from being taken from them. “Rather these should go, said Nathan, that that the land should be taken from us; we can do without these, but if the land is gone our livelihood is gone” (78); those that had so little would sell or do whatever it took to keep their land and families alive. Some women went to extreme measures to help provide for their families by selling their bodies and making little money through prostitution, “but the man who finds a woman in the street…throws her a few coins that he might possess her, holds her unresisting to whatever he does to her” (118). Some women had no other option other than prostitution, and although they were only trying to provide for their families, the people in their communities shamed them for their desperate actions. The modernization and change of rural India led to the oppression of the poor, shaming of poor women, and left many hungry and