Colour
Read the passages given below and answer the questions that follow them:
No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.
In life, every man has twin obligations — obligations to his family, to his parents, to his wife and children; and he has an obligation to his people, his community, his country. In a civil and humane society, each man is able to fulfil those obligations according to his own inclinations and abilities. But in a country like South Africa, it was almost impossible for a man of my birth and colour to fulfil both of those obligations. In South Africa, a man of colour who attempted to live as a human being was punished and isolated. In South Africa, a man who tried to fulfil his duty to his people was inevitably ripped from his family and his home and was forced to live a life apart, a twilight existence of secrecy and rebellion. I did not, in the beginning, choose to place my people above my family, but in attempting to serve my people, I found that I was prevented from fulfilling my obligations as a son, a brother, a father and a husband.
I was not born with a hunger to be free. I was born free — free in every way that I could know. Free to run in the fields near my mother’s hut, free to swim in the clear stream that ran through my village, free to roast mealies under the stars and ride the broad backs of slow-moving bulls. As long as I obeyed my father and abided by the customs of my tribe, I was not troubled by the laws of man or God.
Word-Meaning: Extinguish—to cause something to stop burning आग बुझाना Inclinations—natural tendencies of behaviour,झुकाव ,रुझान Inevitably—unavoidably,अवश्यम्भावी रूप से Glimmer—a weak light that is not steady, टिमटिमाहट झिलमिलाहट Grimmest—very serious, अति गंभीर
Questions:-
1.Is anyone born hating another person because of his colour?
2. Does love come more unnaturally to the human heart that hates?
3. Can man’s flame for goodness ever be extinguished?
4. What true obligations does every man have?
5. What happened if a man of colour attempted to live as a human being in South Africa?
6. Did the narrator choose to place his people above his family in the beginning?
7. Was the narrator born with a hunger to be free?
8. Why was the narrator not troubled by the laws of man or God?
Answers
1. No, no one is born hating another person because of his colour.
2. No, love comes more naturally to the human heart than hate.
3. No, man’s flame for goodness can never be extinguished.
4. A man has twin obligations to his family as well as to his people and community.
5. If a man of colour attempted to live as a human being in South Africa, he was punished and isolated.
6. No, the narrator didn’t choose to place his people above his family in the beginning.
7. No, the narrator was not born with a hunger to be free.
8. As long as he obeyed his father and abided by the customs of his tribe, he was not troubled by the laws of man or God.
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