AcDec 2015-16 Lit/Lang

Material about the 2015-16 USAD AcDec topic - India - for use by the Ridge Point High School Academic Decathlon team.

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Nectar in a Sieve
Nectar in a Sieve is a 1954 novel by Kamala Markandaya. The novel is set in India during a period of intense urban development and is the chronicle of the marriage between Rukmani, youngest daughter of a village headman, and Nathan, a tenant farmer. The story is told in the first person by Rukmani (Ruku), beginning from her arranged marriage to Nathan at the age of 12 to his death many years later.
 * Video Summary of Nectar in a Sieve - http://shmoop.com/video/nectar-in-a-sieve/

☀The title of the novel is taken from the 1825 poem Work Without Hope, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. An excerpt from the poem is the epigraph of the novel:
 * Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,
 * And hope without an object cannot live.
 * The link below is  a video review of the book Nectar in  a Sieve:
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko_OnEPO5iI

The link below is a Quizlet over the book:

https://quizlet.com/1547247/nectar-and-a-sieve-flash-cards/
 * Key Themes:

Hunger and Dignity

In Rukmani’s quest for dignity, hunger is a potent enemy. Fear of hunger, she says, torments the peace of every peasant who lives by the vagaries of the wind and rain. Tired of constant hunger, her elder sons break up the family to seek new lives in a new land. Another son resorts to theft and is killed for it, leaving Rukmani to grieve for his meaningless life. Her daughter chooses the degradation of prostitution over the degradation of starvation. Rukmani nearly becomes a murderer, thinking Kunthi has come to steal the last of their rice. In the city, Rukmani observes the supplicants at the temple pushing and shoving like animals to secure a share of food. Similarly, beggar children snarl and fight like beasts over a scrap dropped in the street. Rukmani indicts both the industrialization of the villages, represented by the tannery, and the laws of land ownership that impoverish and displace peasants like her and Nathan. In Nectar in a Sieve, hunger breeds thieves, prostitutes, murderers, and subhuman beasts. Not only nature’s whims but also the choices of an unjust society produce the shameful misery of starvation.

Knowledge and Power
 * The poor in Markandaya’s novel often suffer at the hands of the strong, but some of them understand that knowledge is a powerful weapon for change. Rukmani insists on teaching all of her children to read and write, even though many in the village believe such knowledge leads to trouble. Her eldest sons are branded troublemakers because they dare to band the workers together in a strike for better wages. The tannery wins because the workers’ coalition fails to hold. Arjun complains that the people will never learn, echoing Kenny’s sentiments as an educated outsider. Rukmani turns to Kenny because, she says, white men have power. Kenny uses his power for good, treating the poor and raising funds to build a hospital. Kunthi uses her knowledge to exercise an evil power, but once Nathan and Rukmani share the truth with each other, Kunthi’s power over them is broken. Puli shares his knowledge of the city to help Nathan and Rukmani save money for their fare home. Throughout the novel, the admirable characters are those who apply their knowledge to help people stand together in a display of moral power.

Major Conflict: On the surface, this is a story about the struggle between life and death for the very poor in an unjust society, but the novel’s transcendent struggle is between the forces of good and evil in a human life, characterized by generosity and greed, compassion and selfishness, and joy and sorrow.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * · Rukmani’s restriction of Ira’s freedoms to protect her from the tannery workers foreshadows the troubles Rukmani’s sons will have with them.

· Ira’s marriage that is “too good to be true” foreshadows future troubles with her fertility and security.

· Kunthi’s prostitution foreshadows Ira’s similar choice.

Major Characters
Ruku (Rukmani)  Ruku is the protagonist and narrator; we watch her mature from a nervous, young bride of 12 to a wise and thoughtful woman of old age. Although she faces many hardships in her life and reluctantly faces numerous changes, Ruku’s spirit remains hopeful as she seeks to hold on to the small joys in life.

Nathan  Ruku’s loving husband, Nathan is a constant in Ruku’s uncertain life. Quiet and unassuming, Nathan works hard to provide for his family but eventually loses his battle to hold onto his land and his life.

Ira (Irawaddy)  Ruku and Nathan’s eldest child and oldest daughter, Ira is an obedient child who turns into a beautiful young woman. Rejected by her husband for failing to have children, Ira returns home only to later become a mother through an encounter as a prostitute.

''Selvam  Ruku and Nathan’s fifth son - Selvam decides that despite his father’s wishes he cannot work as a farmer. Selvam goes to work with Kenny to build a clinic in the village and will care for his mother in her old age.''

Kenny (Kennington)  An English doctor who appears from time to time in Ruku’s village. When Ruku is unable to conceive, Kenny helps her. Later, Kenny mentors Ruku’s youngest son, Selvam. Over the years, Kenny and Ruku develop a friendship despite their cultural differences.

Minor Characters
Puli  Puli is an orphan and a leper but he displays the same courage and joy for life that Ruku does. After he helps Ruku and Nathan survive in the city, Ruku decides to adopt him and take him back to her home as her son.

Kunthi  Kunthi is a village woman Ruku’s age whom, from the beginning, seems to bear Ruku a grudge. She learns of Ruku’s visits to Kenny’s clinic and blackmails Ruku; later, Ruku learns that Nathan had fathered Kunthi’s sons.

Arjun  Ruku and Nathan’s oldest son - Arjun takes a job at the tannery and leads a strike of the workers. After he looses his job, he had his brother Thambi travel to Ceylon to work on tea plantations.

Thambi  Ruku and Nathan’s second son - Thambi joins his brother Arjun in working at the tannery and in leading the tannery strike. He also goes to work on the tea plantations.

Murugan  Ruku and Nathan’s third son - Murugan takes a job in the city as a servant. When Ruku and Nathan go to the city they hope to live with Murugan, but they learn that he has abandoned his wife and child and disappeared.

Raja  Ruku and Nathan’s fourth son - Raja also takes a job at the tannery. Weakened by hunger, he dies when tannery guards beat him for allegedly stealing.

Kuti  Ruku and Nathan’s youngest son - As the youngest, Kuti is most affected by the family’s lack of food. Although his sister Ira becomes a prostitute to try to earn food to save him, Kuti dies, a victim of poverty and hunger.

Biswas  The village moneylender and merchant - Biswas has an unsavory reputation for charging high interest on his loans and high prices for his goods, but Ruku is forced to do business with him when times are tight.

Old Granny  An old, unmarried woman who makes a living from buying and selling vegetables - Old Granny serves as matchmaker for Ira and later dies penniless and alone in the street.

Kali  The village gossip - Kali helps Ruku after she is first married and serves as a good, although sometimes overly nosy, friend.

Scarabani  Ira’s child - Scarabani is doubly cursed - he is the bastard son of a prostitute (Ira) and an albino; despite this, Ira and her family love and accept him.

Quit India (Gandhi, 1942)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElixqbRw4g4 (speech video with text)

Quit India was a speech made by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8, 1942 during the midst of World War II. His speech advocated independence for India and resulted in immediate jailing for Gandhi and other Indian National Congress members. (text of speech)

Tryst with Destiny (Nehru, 1947)
This was a speech delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India, to the Indian Constituent Assembly in The Parliament, on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 15 August 1947. (video of speech)

Imaginary Homelands (Rushdie, 1992)
Imaginary Homelands is a collection of essays written by Salman Rushdie covering a wide variety of topics. In addition to the title essay, the collection also includes "'Commonwealth Literature' Does Not Exist".

The Riddle of Midnight: India, August, 1987 (Rushdie)
Contained within the collection of essays titled Imaginary Homelands.

Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist (Rushdie, 1992)
Contained within the collection of essays titled Imaginary Homelands.