During the war , nativists in the United States were expressing hostility toward certain minority groups , especially radicals and recent immigrants viewing anything un-American with suspicion . By 1917 , Germans were the object of much of the American nativistic fervor . Fear of German subversion and conspiracies ran rampant throughout the U.S. after the Black Tom explosion and the Kingsland Explosion , both suspected to have been caused by German agents . Thus by being linked to Germany in a conspiracy , the Indian Nationalists should have been the recipients of the same hostility . Although calls for their deportation were made by government officials after the Hindu-German conspiracy trial , none of the Indian Nationalists were deported
Black Tom explosion
Black Tom explosion
Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial