What imagery does Balram describe seeing about him in the city in "The Sixth Night," and what is its significance?

Balram describes a series of images that he says he hasn’t been paying attention to: images that on one level are associated with the book’s narrative interest in politics and which, on a more metaphoric level, can be seen as evoking the novel’s thematic interest in freedom vs. slavery. One example is the image of hands in chains.