In the poem ‘Water’ the speaker highlights how ‘water’ becomes a symbol of discrimination against the Dalits.
(a) Since the Dalits do not have free access to water, they cannot take a bath as and when they like. They can take a bath only after they have stored up adequate water for all the members of the family. Normally, this used to happen only once a week in those, days.
(b) The Dalits were prohibited from fetching water from a pond or tank in a village. Naturally, when they needed water they had to go to the pond with their *** and wait until a shudra arrived and gave them water. Secondly, when the village people gave them water, they used to pour water from a distance into the pots carried by the Dalits and some water would fall on their body. This caused a lot of anguish and humiliation to the Dalits.
(c) The speaker speaks about ‘water’ as a natural social agent. Water is essential for life. It can give life but also can devour lives. The water that refused to quench parched throats became the ** tsunami wave and swallowed village after village. This way ‘water’ worked as a symbol of Nature and showed its fury against people who discriminated against the Dalits.
