Page:The Pilgrims' March.djvu/156

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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.

The Indian National Congress 29th December 1921. * *

There is nothing in this resolution, which any one who has modesty and humility need be ashamed of. This resolution is not an arrogant challenge to anybody, but this is a challenge to an authority that is enthroned on arrogance. It is a challenge to the authority, which disregards the considered opinion of millions of thinking human beings. It is an humble challenge, and an irrevocable challenge to authority, which in order to save itself wants to crush freedom of opinion, freedom of forming associations, the two lungs that are absolutely necessary for a man to breathe the oxygen of liberty. And if there is any authority in this country, that wants to curb the freedom of speech and freedom of association, I want to be able to say, in your name from this platform, that that authority will perish, and that authority will have to repent before an India that is steeled with high courage, noble purpose and determination, till every man and woman who chose to call themselves Indians are blotted out of the earth. It combines courage and humility. *