“Water: Question and Answers” is essential for life. It is the most important substance on Earth. We need water to drink, to bathe, to cook, and to clean. We also need water for agriculture, industry, and energy production. Read More 2nd PUC English Question and Answers.
Water Question and Answers
Question 1.
Give an account of the humiliation and craving felt in the poem ‘Water’.
OR
The difference between race and agony of the panchama due to water has been effectively brought out in ‘Water’. Explain.
Answer:
The poem ‘Water’ expresses the terrible humiliation and suffering caused to the Dalits, or the untouchables owing to the social restrictions imposed by the upper caste people. In India, in the pre-independence period and in the early decades of the post-independence period, the Dalits had to face the wrath of the upper caste people over allowing the Dalits to collect water from the village tanks or ponds.
Whenever these panchamas needed water they would come to the village pond and wait there until a shudra came there and gave them water. The reader can imagine the misery and the anguish suffered by the Dalits at that time.
The speaker states that whenever a Wada girl comes to a village pond to collect water, a member of the upper caste would draw water from the well and pour it into the pot or vessel brought by the Dalit girl from a distance and from a higher level. Naturally, some water would fall on her. The speaker states that only ‘water’ knows the humiliation suffered by the girl. The speaker wants the reader to reflect on the cruelty shown to the Wada girl on such occasions.
On the 16th of July 1985, two Kamma youths were washing dirty buckets in the drinking water tank meant for the Dalit community in Madigapalle. This was objected to by a Dalit boy which angered the Kamma youths. The Kamma youths became furious at being challenged and tried to beat up the Dalit boy. Seeing this, a woman named Munnangi Suvartamma, lifted her vessel and prevented the youths from hurting the boy. This act resulted in a ghastly attack on the Dalits.
The speaker states that only ‘water’ knows the righteous anger of the Dalit woman. The speaker seems to be asking the reader whether this is not known to the others and why they are keeping quiet.
The speaker states that when she sees water, she remembers how the people in her Wada would thirst all day for a glass of water. She recalls nostalgically how they eagerly awaited the weekly bath as if it was a wondrous festival and also relives the misery when she recalls that the entire village except them, bathed luxuriously twice a day.
Question 2.
How is the destructive nature of water brought out in the poem ’Water’?
Answer:
The poem ‘Water’ attempts to depict the struggle, the anguish, the suffering and the humiliation suffered by the Dalits to get their rightful share of water. The speaker, having recollected all the incidents related to their humiliations and their suffering, talks about how water can be a source of retributive justice. The speaker declares that water is not a simple thing; it can give life but can also devour lives. She then declares in a vengeful tone that the water that could not serve to quench the thirst of the parched throats (of Dalits) became the killer tsunami wave and swallowed the whole village after village.
The speaker declares that ‘water’ is so powerful that it treats the ‘poor’ as its playthings. Sometimes, many villages suffer from drought and become dry deserts killing poor people. It may also come in the form of floods and drown them. Thus, the poet depicts the destructive nature of water.
Question 3.
How can water be a life-giver as well as life taker?
OR
Water can give life and can also devour lives. Examine the significance of this statement in light of ’Water’.
Answer:
The speaker talks about how water can be a source of retributive justice. The speaker declares that water is not a simple thing; it can give life but can also devour lives. She then declares in a vengeful tone that the water that could not serve to quench the thirst of the parched throats (of Dalits) became the killer tsunami wave and swallowed the whole village after village.
The speaker declares that ‘water’ is so powerful that it treats the ‘poor’ as its playthings. Sometimes, many villages suffer from drought and become dry deserts killing poor people. It may also come in the form of floods and drown them. Thus, the poet depicts the destructive nature of water.
Water is the elixir of life and without water, no life can exist on this earth. Naturally, water is a life-giver. When a panchama goes to a village tank and is made to wait for a pot of water all day long, one can imagine the misery and the hardships the Dalits have to suffer when they are denied a rightful share of water.
Like the panchama, the Wada girl is also made to face humiliation by being forced to collect the water dropped from above and getting drenched in the process. One has to imagine their need for water and the way it is given to them.
Similarly, water functions like a life-giver when we get to know that the Dalits face quite a few days without water even to quench their thirst. The speaker narrates one incident where water would have been a life-giver. In Malapalle, several thatched huts would have been saved if only there was one pot of water to douse the fire.
Question 4.
Why is water a mighty movement, according to the speaker in ‘Water’?
Answer:
According to the speaker, water is a mighty movement because the denial of water to the Dalits became the cause of a historical struggle in Mumbai. In the Mahad municipality in Mumbai, even though the municipality had passed a resolution allowing the Dalit community access to the public tank, the local upper caste people prevented them from using the water. Subsequently, Dr Ambedkar went in a rally to the tank, drank a handful of water from the tank and asserted the right of the Dalits to use water from a public place like every other person in society.
Question 5.
What personal memories does the speaker associate with water in the poem ‘Water’?
Answer:
Whenever the speaker sees water, she says that she recalls the days when they suffered from thirst as there was no water in the house to quench, their parched throats. She also recalls the days with regret as well as pleasure, how they eagerly looked forward to the day when they would get their bath of the week while the entire village bathed luxuriously twice a day.
When she sees water, the speaker recalls her childhood, when they had to walk miles and miles to fetch water from the big canal and carry back heavy pots with the muscles and veins in their necks straining and bursting. She also remembers the day when several thatched roofs in Malapalle got destroyed by fire, the only reason being there was not even a pot of water to douse the fire.
Question 6.
How does the speaker in the poem ‘Water’ trace the journey of water using it as a witness?
OR
How is water a witness to centuries of social injustice?
Answer:
The poem ‘Water’ by Swaroopa Rani presents the struggle, the humiliation, the anguish and the suffering undergone by the Dalits to obtain their rightful share of water, which is a natural resource. The speaker cites ‘water’ as the witness to the practice of untouchability.
Water has been a witness to the plight of the Dalits who have been fighting for their right to their share of water. She declares that this water has been witness to the age-old strife between the upper caste people and the Dalits. The speaker expresses the agony of the panchama who waits for water the whole day and the humiliation of the Wada girl, who has to collect the water thrown at her from a distance and in this act how she has to bear the humiliation caused by the water that falls on her.
The speaker mentions an incident in which a Dalit woman comes to the rescue of a Dalit boy who is about to be thrashed by Kamma landlords.
The speaker also mentions how they craved for a glass of water with parched throats. The speaker confesses regretfully and nostalgically how they awaited the day of their bath in a week while the other people in the village enjoyed the luxury of bathing twice a day.
Finally, the speaker recalls how several thatched huts in Malapalle got reduced to ashes for want of a pot of water to douse a rising fire.
Question 7.
Water is also a commodity in the hands of multinational companies. Explain with reference to ‘Water’.
Answer:
The poem ‘Water’ by Challapalli Swaroopa Rani highlights the humiliation, anguish, agony and suffering caused to the Dalits by the upper caste people denying them their rightful share of water.
Incidentally, the poet makes an attempt to trace the journey of water which begins as a source of purity, available in ponds and tanks in villages and towns. Though all living creatures have a right to share it, the upper caste people deny it to the Dalits for the only reason that they are ‘avarnas’ or Dalits, and thus impure.
In the last part of the poem, the speaker says that water, which began as a symbol of purity, has become a commodity in Bisleri bottles as mineral water, being sold in multinational markets. She mocks at the wisdom of the people who biasedly denied Dalits free access to water, an elixir of life.
Question 8.
What are the things that the water knows in the poem ‘Water’?
Answer:
In the poem ‘Water’, the speaker recalls the ‘role’ played by water as an agent of social change. Incidentally, she uses the context of the poem to highlight the travails and tribulations suffered by the people in wadas, with particular reference to the practice of untouchability in Andhra Pradesh.
In the first five stanzas, she mentions the various instances of the practice of untouchability witnessed by ‘water’. She states that ‘water’ knows that ‘untouchability’ never disappears because the quarrel over allowing the Dalits to collect water from a village tank or pond between the upper caste people and the Dalits, has been smouldering for several generations.
The speaker cites a biblical incident in which Jesus, the Jew, goes to a Samaria woman, in a town called Sychar, and asks the woman for a drink. The Samaria woman belongs to an inferior race and Jesus, the Jew belongs to a superior race. Here the speaker intends to highlight the fact that ‘water’ is essential to all, be it a Samaria woman or Jesus the Jew. The idea is reiterated in the next two lines. Even among the untouchables, there were sub-castes. ‘Leather’ refers to cobblers and the ‘spool’ refers to weavers. The speaker means to say whether one is a cobbler or a weaver both of them need water.
She next mentions the agony of the ‘Panchama’, considered an untouchable and hence not allowed to draw water from a public well. It is unfortunate that he has to wait near a well until a shudra arrives to give him water.
The speaker mentions the case of a Wada girl (an untouchable) who has to receive water poured by someone from a distance and from a higher level. On such occasions, some water is bound to fall on the body of the girl. The girl has to suffer this humiliating act for the sake of water.
Lastly, the speaker mentions the courageous act of Karamchedu Suvartamma who opposed the Kamma landlords when they were about to beat up a Dalit boy for asking them not to wash dirty buckets in the drinking water tank in Madigapalle. This act of lifting the vessel in self-defence later resulted in a ghastly attack by the upper caste people on the Dalits.
Question 9.
Describe the many things that the speaker remembers when she sees water in ‘Water’.
Answer:
In the second half of the poem, the speaker narrates her personal experiences. The speaker says that whenever she sees water, she recalls how the people in her part of the village (Wada) would suffer from severe thirst all day, not being able to get even a glass of water. She recalls sadly how they (the Dalits) would look forward to their weekly bath day, as if it was a wonderful festival day, while the upper caste people in the entire village enjoyed bathing luxuriously twice a day. Here the speaker intends to highlight the fact that while the Dalits were ‘deprived’ of water and were given water only once a week, the other people had so much water that they bathed luxuriously twice a day.
The speaker recalls her childhood when they had to walk miles and miles to fetch water from the big canal and carry back heavy pots with the muscles and veins in their necks straining and bursting.
The speaker narrates a fire accident in Malapalle. It was a locality where the Dalits lived in thatched huts. When their thatched roofs caught fire, the huts were completely destroyed in the fire for want of a pot of water to douse the fire.
Question 10.
Bring out the irony in ‘Water’ where the speaker remarks on the innocence of water.
Answer:
‘Water’ is a reflective narrative poem, which is used in the poem as a concrete witness to the practice of untouchability and as a metaphor for social injustice and oppression. In the first five stanzas, The poet mentions the instances in which water served as a witness for the practice of untouchability. Then she presents her own experience of the sufferings that she underwent to get ‘water’ for day-to-day needs. Next, she cites the incident of the Tsunami wave which swallowed a great number of villages. The poet vents her anger against the destruction caused by ‘water’. She remarks that water, which has ignited many struggles and quarrels between people of villages and people of the ‘Wada’, can cause blood to run in streams.
However, the same water can also sit innocently in a Bisleri bottle appearing very innocuous. Here, the poet tries to highlight the situational irony in these lines. The very same water which has caused centuries-old wars of attrition between people has now become a marketable commodity, which anyone can buy. Thus, this marketable commodity now seems to erase from people’s memory the practices of untouchability, for which it had been a witness for centuries.
Question 11.
Why is water not simply H20 to the downtrodden? Give reasons with reference to Water’.
Answer:
The poem ‘Water’ attempts to depict the struggle, the anguish, the suffering and humiliation suffered by the Dalits to get their rightful share of water, which is an elixir of life, and a natural resource. The poem incidentally throws light on the multiple facets of water. The poem highlights instances when ‘water’ is used as the instrument of discrimination, as a life-giver, a life taker and a multinational market commodity also.
Water can be a source of retributive justice. It can not only give life but can also devour life. The water that could not serve to quench the thirst of parched throats became the killer tsunami wave which swallowed the whole village after village.
Water is so powerful that it treats the ‘poor’ as its playthings. Sometimes, many villages suffer from drought and become dry deserts killing poor people. It may also come in the form of floods and drown them.
Water is the elixir of life and without water, no life can exist on this earth. Naturally, water is a life-giver. When a panchama goes to a village tank and is made to wait all day for a pot of water, one can imagine the misery and the hardships the Dalits have to suffer when they are denied their rightful share of water.
Like the panchama, the Wada girl is also made to face humiliation by being forced to collect the water dropped from above and getting drenched in the process.
Water functions like a life-giver. The poem presents one incident where water would have been a life-giver. In Malapalle, several thatched huts would have been saved if only there was one pot of water to douse the fire.
On the whole, one can infer that water is no mean matter but an omniscient phenomenon, because it is now being sold as mineral water in bisleri bottles all over the globe.
Water Question and Answers are a reminder of our responsibility to future generations. We must do everything we can to protect our water resources and to ensure that they are available for future generations