Portrait of a maverick revolutionary

 His style of functioning was different from other revolutionaries of his ilk, like Bhagat Singh, Madan Lal Dhingra, Udham Singh and others. He conjectured, preached and promoted the politics of bombs but seldom practised it himself.

 He also successfully avoided being imprisoned by the British though he poured venom on them through his speeches and writings. To ensure that, he spent most of his politically active life abroad, living on whatever little he could earn from his intellectual pursuits.

 Har Dayal had a distinct personality and charm, apart from the good looks that made him a hit with women. At least two of his affairs with women abroad, despite having a faithful wife in India, are known. He, however, neither married any of them nor deserted his Indian wife who bore him a daughter whom he never saw.

 In some ways, however, Har Dayal could be likened to another illustrious, albeit controversial, freedom fighter of those days, Veer Savarkar. For one thing, he wrote extensively and delivered lectures on the Hindu philosophy and advocated cow protection.

 But more significantly, like Savarkar, Har Dayal also took a complete somersault towards the later part of his life and made several representations to the British, denouncing his own past and seeking amnesty. Not only that, Har Dayal even took to praising the British, describing them as