42 pages • 1 hour read
Nectar in a Sieve
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Background
Literary Context: Postcolonial Literature
Postcolonial literature is a genre that focuses on the narratives of countries after gaining freedom from other countries. The original postcolonial novels told the stories of India, Africa, and the Caribbean after each became free from colonization. Since then, the genre has expanded and recognizes colonization’s impact worldwide from Latin America to Ireland and Oceania.
Some common themes in postcolonial literature include otherness (the sense that a place or people are outside of a standard) and revolution. Challenges faced by characters even after their country’s liberation include systems of oppression where one set of values is believed to be better than another. Edward Said, a Palestinian scholar who helped create the field of postcolonial studies, calls this idea “cultural imperialism.” Hand in hand with theories like Marxism, for example, postcolonial literature examines the complicated dynamic between the oppressors (or the bourgeoisie) and the oppressed (or the proletariat).
One of the primary tensions that appears throughout Nectar in a Sieve is between native Indians and the white people who continue to oppress them. While some characters like Kenny are portrayed more positively, conflicts still arise from cultural differences and the push for progress while India is determining its postcolonial identity. One of the invisible challenges Rukmani faces throughout the novel is preserving identity and tradition, fighting against progress while still feeling the lingering pressures of the oppression that came before.
Historical Context: India’s Independence from Britain
British intervention in India began in the 17th century when the East India Company established trade routes and factories on the Indian subcontinent. Battling for power and territory with other European companies, the East India Company used military force to dominate the region, annexing Indian territory through armed conflict or treaties with Indian rulers that acknowledged the Company’s dominance in exchange for limited power. By 1818, Britain controlled most of the region, deemed British India, and the East India Company governed it through Company rule.
After the failed 1857 Indian Rebellion, the British government took over control and established the British Raj in 1858, which occupied India for 89 years. The Raj maintained a social hierarchy that suppressed and separated Indians, and many British colonists in India adopted the “white man’s burden” attitude, believing it was their duty to “civilize” the native populations. Plantations that cultivated cash crops supplanted Indigenous farming practices, and industrialization and increased exports resulted in extreme famines.
Rebellions occurred throughout British occupation, and independence movements grew in the 20th century. The Indian National Congress, formed in 1885, became more influential under Mahatma Gandhi’s presidency in 1924. Gandhi advocated for nonviolent responses to oppression and civil disobedience. Independence movements grew, especially when Britain unilaterally involved India in World War II. The Quit India movement emerged in response, declaring that India would not fight until India was granted its independence; as a result, 60,000 activists, including Gandhi, were arrested. India eventually won its independence in 1947, but even with its sovereignty secured, India faced further conflicts when political borders were redrawn to create two separate countries: India and Pakistan.
Nectar in a Sieve takes place in India in the late 1940s when India first gained independence from Britain. Because India and Pakistan only recently acquired provisions for self-governance, they struggled to establish defined, cohesive national identities. A desire within some Indian and Pakistani people to adhere to traditions contrasted with a wider global push for modernization. This creates conflict within the narrative. Though the partition and British rule are never explicitly mentioned, the remaining social power of white people and a general mistrust of Muslims in India appear throughout the novel and reflect the lingering dynamics from British rule and the tensions that led to partition.
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