Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/187

 his rest we can only, in language all too feeble, express our undying gratitude for all that he did for us and our country with an earnestness of devotion and nobility of purpose which have scarcely any parallel."

The Punjahee said "his name was truly a household word, pronounced with love and veneration by the young and old. Though an official and a Mutiny veteran, he was known to the millions of Indians only as the originator of the sentiment of Indian nationality. . . . Fancy this ex-Secretary to the Government of India gathering up the scattered forces of Indians and promoting a national movement among them at a time when the echoes of the Ilbert Bill controversy had hardly died in the Himalayan fastness ! He worked with a stout heart through all the discouraging and disconcerting circumstances. Never did he once quail before the huge mass of inertia that confronted him at every step."

The Hindu, of Madras, ranked Mr. Hume as the first of the noble band of Englishmen who after their retirement to England, keep a warm heart for India and Indians. "During the thirty-three years he came into contact with the Indian people he had conceived such a love for them that he could not bring himself to what most of his countrymen do by retiring to England and forgetting the country to which they owe so much And of all those who, by their untiring industry, winning persuasion, and steadfast work, brought the institution into being, successfully steered it through difficulties of every kind and watched its growth vigilantly and with anxiety, Mr. Hume's name will ever be remembered with the warmest affection and gratitude."

The Indian Patriot regarded Mr. Hume as a " father " of the Indian people, as well as the " father " of the Congress. " If the happiness of his life was ever disturbed it was mostly on account of his earnest solicitude for India and Indians. We owe to him our love and gratitude in a measure that few other men can claim, and it behoves us to demonstrate both in the most fitting manner possible. We must erect monuments of our love and gratitude to the great man, not only in one place, but in as many places as