Comprehension

I. Answer these questions in one or two words.

Q1. Where is the place which is described at the beginning of the story?
Answer: Near the highlands.

Q2. Who took a dip in the water?
Answer: The young man.

Q3. What were they travelling by?
Answer: Bicycles.

Q4. In whose house was the captive kept?
Answer: The village headman’s house.

Q5. Which bird does the captive think of?
Answer: A kingfisher.

II. Answer these questions in a few words.

Q1. What is referred to as the ‘object’ by the captive?
Answer: The lethal gun inside the bag.

Q2. What is the food offered to the captive in the headman’s house?
Answer: Chicken curry and rice.

Q3. How did Captain Batra offer his respects to the boy?
Answer: He touched his cap with his hand.

Q4. What did the boy say he would do if the circumstances changed?
Answer: He would have to execute the captive.

Q5. How did the captive know that the boy was highly educated?
Answer: From his pronunciation of English words.

III. Answer these questions briefly.

Q1. What is the nature of the relationship between the captive and the young man?
Answer: The relationship changes from a fearful one to one of mutual understanding and companionship. The captive feels a strange sense of security from the young man, and they eventually become like teacher and student to each other.

Q2. How does the captive come to understand the meaning of ‘Freedom Fighters’?
Answer: The captive understands the meaning of “Freedom Fighters” when his abductor tells him that several people who have come to secure his captivity are “Freedom Fighters”.

Q3. How did the captive record his movement in captivity?
Answer: The captive kept a journal in a notebook that the youth had given him.

Q4. How did his abductors treat the captive?
Answer: Initially, they were rough and used words with “ridicule, callousness, and cruelty”. However, the young man who became his keeper treated him with respect, giving him news of his family and even nursing him when he was seriously ill.

Q5. Why does the captive feel that his abductor is also not free?
Answer: The captive feels that his abductor is also not free because the youth “could not abandon him and go away”. He is a prisoner to his duty, and until the captive is free, the youth will “remain a captive”.

IV. Answer these questions in detail.

Q1. Comment on the significance of the title of the story. Does it refer only to the abductee?
Answer: The title “The Captive” is highly significant, but it does not refer only to the abductee. Initially, it seems to refer to the government officer who has been taken hostage. However, as the story progresses, the captive realizes that the young man who holds him is also “a prisoner at the other end of the metallic gun-barrel”. The young man is bound by his duty to his organization and cannot be free until the captive is also free. The story also suggests that even the kingfisher is captive to the stream. Thus, the title extends beyond the protagonist to encompass the universal nature of captivity, whether physical, emotional, or ideological.

Q2. Write about the journey undertaken by the captive and the young man.
Answer: The journey is a long one, beginning with the abduction and continuing for seven months. They travel across unfamiliar, difficult terrain, wading through chest-high rivers and marching through dense jungles and marshes. They frequently change shelters, sometimes staying in remote tribal villages. Their journey is driven by the need to find “a safe shelter from the soldiers and the security forces”. The constant travel is physically demanding for the captive, who initially views it with fear and mistrust. However, as his relationship with the young man evolves, the journey becomes a time for mutual learning, with the captive teaching about literature and the youth teaching about nature and rural life. The journey is both a physical movement from place to place and a metaphorical journey of understanding between two people from different worlds.