The Tannery (Symbol)
The tannery that arrives in Rukmani's village is a symbol of urbanization and the transition into modernity. When it is first being constructed, the tannery attracts the curiosity of the local peasants, who have only ever known a life of subsistence farming. The first indication that the tannery will displace the local population comes when the project overseer gets tired of answering questions and tells the peasants to go away. Rukmani is insulted by the preposterousness of her neighbors being told to leave their own field, and she perceives that the tannery is a bad omen. Other villagers, however, insist that the tannery—a place where animal skins are brought to be turned into leather—is going to be an economic boon to the impoverished, agriculturally dependent area. Sure enough, several of Rukmani's sons take jobs at the tannery, earning each one rupee a day that they contribute to the household, elevating their entire family's standard of living. But when the boys strike for a better wage, the tannery owners show their dominance by forcing people back to work on penalty of being replaced. Seeking better wages and working conditions, the boys leave to work on a tea plantation in Ceylon, leaving Rukmani and Nathan without their sons' contributions. The tannery also causes inflated prices at the market, as workers being paid decent wages can pay more for goods. Another of Rukmani's complaints about the tannery is that the men who work there create a new market for alcohol and sex work. Ira herself begins engaging in sex work with tannery employees when her family is starving. Eventually, the tannery owners buy the farmland Nathan and Rukmani have been renting for thirty years, a final blow to the steady displacement of the farmers and their antiquated way of life.
Rice Crop (Symbol)
The yearly rice crop Rukmani and Nathan grow and harvest is a symbol of survival. As tenant farmers, the family's survival depends on their ability to cultivate enough rice to pay the landowner his yearly rent (approximately 250-300 rupees) and have enough left over to eat themselves. In good years, the family has enough extra rice to sell that they can also afford things like clothes, lentils (dhal), spices, milk, and ghee. However, in bad years when monsoon flooding or drought ruin the crop, the family starves, getting by on their paltry grain reserves. During the famine, Rukmani loses two children: one dies of starvation, and another is so desperate to raise money that he attempts to steal an animal skin from the tannery, dying when guards hit him on the head. In this way, the failure of one year's rice harvest is a literal matter of life and death for the family.
Literacy (Motif)
In Nectar In A Sieve, the ability to read and write serves as a symbol of modernity. Even though she is a woman, Rukmani receives a basic education as a child—a rarity in the novel's rural Indian setting. Rukmani's father insists that his children become literate because he wishes to elevate them above their peers. Upon moving to Nathan's village, Rukmani discovers that the peasant locals, such as Kunthi, disparage the concept of literacy, warning that education only brings about problems. When Rukmani's literate sons stage a worker strike at the tannery, Kunthi reminds Rukmani of her warning, saying that the boys have read about and tried to implement ideas that have caused trouble. Ultimately, however, Rukmani's literacy enables her to narrate the story of her life and help her work through the grief of losing Nathan.
Sacrabani's Albinism (Symbol)
Ira's son's albinism is a symbol of prejudice. Considered a "bastard" in the context of the novel because Ira conceived him while doing sex work, Sacrabani already faces prejudice before he is born. When he emerges with pale skin and pink eyes, Rukmani worries immediately for the child's future, believing superstitiously that the rare pigment condition of albinism marks the boy from birth. Nathan looks upon the child with an emotion bordering on disgust, taking the boy's genetic inability to play in the sun as evidence that he is akin to a shade-preferring snake or jackal. The birth also causes a stir in the community, with people flocking to gawk at Ira's inexplicably pale child. However, Selvam scolds his parents and their acquaintances for being needlessly prejudiced against the child, whose difference in color means nothing for his personality or worth as a human. Rukmani observes her son's embrace of Sacrabani and learns from him that the older generation's concerns and assumptions are unfounded.
Fertility (Motif)
Markandaya establishes the motif of fertility when the arrival of Rukmani's first child coincides with her early success growing vegetables. As the wife of a tenant farmer, Rukmani is expected both to keep the family's farmland fertile with her own labor and to give birth to children who will also contribute to managing the land. However, Rukmani cannot get pregnant following Ira's birth, and she suffers the shame of her potential infertility for six years. When Kenny offers to help, Rukmani secretly goes to him for undisclosed fertility treatments (likely hormone supplements) that precipitate the arrival of one son a year for many years. Although Nathan and Rukmani are both happy to have sons who can work the farm with them, the shame of having sought a Western medical intervention from Kenny lingers for Rukmani, as though she has cheated. The motif arises again when Ira's husband "returns" her to the family after five years of them being unable to conceive a child. Rukmani brings Ira to Kenny for the same fertility treatments, and Ira, too, accepts the necessity of a modern medical intervention to fulfill the role society expects of her as a woman.
