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 pot 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 killer 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.