REFLECTIONS OF RURAL INDIA : DEGRADATION AND ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION IN KAMALA MARKANDAYA's A HANDFUL OF RICE

A Handful of Rice is Kamala Markandaya’s fifth novel. It was published in 1966 and it is a realistic sensible novel. The novel contains of forty chapters. It is quite fascinating and interesting. The main theme of the novel is hunger and poverty. Exodus from the villages to the towns and destruction’s of artisan by industry It depicts real Indian life and is Universal in appeal.Poverty is a keynote of Indian rural community life. Most of the people in Indian village are poor as the villages do not offer any chance to the people to earn better livelihood. Poverty is continuously creating and become the root cause for many crimes as theft smuggling and black-marketing and prostitution.