54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST in its propaganda paper or the statement of a Ghadaritc turned approver in the Lahore Conspiracy trials4 and the author's personal predilections and impressions. However, as it comes out from the perspectives of the leaders and the conduct of their operations, the ideological appeal was so strong that a rational organization as an instrument of strategy haidly appeared significant. The Ghadar movement was organized on the Pacific coast of the United States of America (USA). Those who comprised it were Punjabi immigrants, mostly Sikhs, small and middle peasants at home, working as labourers in farms and factories in the USA and Canada. Many of them had served terms in the British Indian Army. Their emigration was a response to economic frustration and oppression at home. Coming to strange lands, however, they were confronted with racial hostility, fear and a sense of alienation. This "double jeopardy of oppression"5 called for action and to that end an analysis and understanding of the fundamental reasons of their oppression on the one hand and political mobilization and organization on the other. This was the task undertaken by middle class intellectuals, chief among whom was Lala Har Dayal.6 Har Dayal had acquired, among Indians living abroad, a considerable reputation as a revolutionary intellectual. Groups of Indian immigrant labourers gathered to listen to him during May-June, 1913, when he addressed a series of meetings at various ranches and farms where they worked. In his sliarp anti-British diatribe he explained to them that the basic reason for all their oppression and misery was the British rule in India. The Britisli had ruined the country's economy, and demoralized the people. Thousands had to leave their country in search of a Livelihood. In foreign lands they were hated and ridiculed. This was mainly because they were ^slaves*' of the British. No petitions could give the Indians their freedom and self-respect. The need was to overthrow the British rule through an armed revolt. The British could have been easily removed in 1857 itself had the Sikhs not supported the British then. Now if the brave Sikhs were ready to join the revolt, the British could be expelled in no time.7 Inspired by the warm response from his audience, he declared at a meeting held at Astoria (June, 1913) that a revolution would occur in India within ten years.8 Har Dayal was however, mainly a "man of words"; propaganda, oral and written, was his forte, and as for "practical work", he confessed an vear later, he was "unsuited."9 So when issues