Page:The Pilgrims' March.djvu/101

Rh our part and a little sacrifice, will surely take us to the promised land in less than a month.

Civil disobedience was inevitable, but the danger of disorder made us draw a distinction between mass and individual disobedience. We were striving to find out what law or orders were best fitted for civil disobedience. We laid down conditions, moving most cautiously. When we were thus anxiously feeling our way, our rulers have come to our help. The hand of God is clearly seen in recent events. Clean simple Civil Disobedience, with all the advantages of individual as well as of mass disobedience, with the risks of violence reduced to a minimum, has been rendered possible by the wholesale prohibitions of Congress executive work which is now being promulgated as law in province after province.

We made the mistake of giving our honorary Congress Workers a bad English name. We called them Volunteers and the Government is taking full advantage of the word. "Volunteer" suggests guns, sticks or at least, some amount of drill. Under the pretence of supressing a potential army of revolutionaries, which in European countries would call itself by such a name, Government's trying to make illegal all congress work such as Swadeshi or