The Indian social system, with just a few exceptions, is dominated by patriarchy, which advocates male governance and female subordination. The better share has always been in the control of men and women have to be contented with the minor role and have to be restricted to the background. In this system, a woman is projected to mould herself in the pattern of the family into which she is married and ultimately fuses her identity with that of her husband. As Sudir Kumar Arora predicts:
Inevitably, she becomes the shadow of her husband and follows him throughout her life. She is expected to support in all his ups and downs, adding her strength to him. Chastity and fidelity are her most precious ornaments. Her family is her place of worship and the carrel, in which she remains confined, is the kitchen where she performs her daily duties. In bedroom, she worships her husband calling him her ‘Pati-Parmeshwar’. (Arora 35)
For years this has been the practice in this male chauvinistic Indian family, where transgression is measured a sin. Women writers started to contest these communal suppressions in excess of the years with massive determination. Markandaya derives …show more content…
In the Indian social tradition of marriage, there continue a conflict between tradition and modernity. Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve depicts the traditional approach of the Indian women towards marriage. The protagonist Rukmani seems to conform to the established image of women personified in the mythical figures of Sita and Savitri who silently bear all hardships and remain devoted to their husbands. Born of the village head man and married to a tenant farmer below her family status, her good soul speaks of her husband as one “ who was poor in everything but in love and care for me.” (NS 4) She feels proud of him as he is efficient in farming, in maintaining the household single handed and he is also a loving
Inevitably, she becomes the shadow of her husband and follows him throughout her life. She is expected to support in all his ups and downs, adding her strength to him. Chastity and fidelity are her most precious ornaments. Her family is her place of worship and the carrel, in which she remains confined, is the kitchen where she performs her daily duties. In bedroom, she worships her husband calling him her ‘Pati-Parmeshwar’. (Arora 35)
For years this has been the practice in this male chauvinistic Indian family, where transgression is measured a sin. Women writers started to contest these communal suppressions in excess of the years with massive determination. Markandaya derives …show more content…
In the Indian social tradition of marriage, there continue a conflict between tradition and modernity. Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve depicts the traditional approach of the Indian women towards marriage. The protagonist Rukmani seems to conform to the established image of women personified in the mythical figures of Sita and Savitri who silently bear all hardships and remain devoted to their husbands. Born of the village head man and married to a tenant farmer below her family status, her good soul speaks of her husband as one “ who was poor in everything but in love and care for me.” (NS 4) She feels proud of him as he is efficient in farming, in maintaining the household single handed and he is also a loving