CHAPTER I

1. LIFE OF M.N. ROY

M. N. Roy’s original name was Narendra Nath Bhattacharya. He was born on 21

March 1887, at Arbalia, a village in 24 Parganas district in Bengal. His father, Dinabandhu

Bhattacharya, was head pandit of a local school. His mother’s name was Basanta Kumari.

Roy began his political career as a militant nationalist at the age of 14, when

he was still a student. He joined an underground organization called Anushilan Samiti, and

when it was banned, he helped in organizing Jugantar Group under the leadership of Jatin

Mukherji. In 1915, after the beginning of the First World War, Roy left India for Java in

search of arms for organizing an insurrection to overthrow the British rule in India. From then

on, he moved from country to country, using fake passports and different names in his

attempt to secure German arms. Finally, after wandering through Malay, Indonesia, Indo-

China, Philippines, Japan, Korea and China, in June 1916, he landed at San Francisco in

United States of America1.

Roy’s attempts to secure arms ended in a failure. The Police repression had shattered

the underground organization that Roy had left behind. He had also come to know about the

death of his leader, Jatin Mukherji, in an encounter with police.

His father Shri Dinabandhu Bhattacharyya served as a devout priest in a temple

dedicated to the goddess Ksheputeswari. Pandit Shibnath Shastri, the maternal uncle of M.N.

Roy, served as an inspiration to him while he was a student at the National College in

Calcutta. On his own initiative, he learned Sanskrit, philosophy, and logic. Together with the

patriots from his own village and others close by, he got involved in revolutionary operations.

He was expelled from Harinavi School as a result of this. He traveled to Calcutta, where he

1
G.D. Parikh, M.N.Roy, in Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. III, Calcutta, SRM Pub., Delhi, 1974, p.36.

10
joined the revolutionary group. Narendranath was given the new name M.N. Roy by

Californian immigrant Dhangopal Mukherjee. M.N. Roy's zeal drew Lala Lajpat Rai as well.

A theft took placating the Changripota Railway Station on December 6, 1907, now

Subhasgram Railway Station, District -South 24 Parganas. M N Roy served as the robbery's

main paladin. Due to the cleverness of another experienced revolutionary, Shri Abinash

Bhattacharyya, he was detained but ultimately freed. However, Shri Narendranath

Bhattacharyya, also known as Hari Singh, Dr. Mamud, Mr. Banerjee, Mr. White, and Garcia,

were detained on suspicion of forming a cover organization on under the direction of

renowned revolutionary Bagha Jatin bewares eventually found not guilty. Under the name C.

Martin, he headed off for Batavia, the Dutch East Indies' capital, in 1915, as World War I was

still in progress, in search of financial assistance as well as modern weapons and ammunition.

Traveled to the Philippines in the same year as Rashbihari Basu, traveled to Japan under the

guise of Mr. White after leaving the Philippines. Roy traveled to America during the

American War to advocate for India.

While there, he met the Radicals and began reading Marxism. He later gained

recognition as a Marxist theorist, changed the Socialist Party into the Communist Party, and

rose to prominence as the founder of the Communist Party and the Mexican Communist Party

outside of Russia. Due to his brilliance and accomplishments, he was also able to catch

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, when he was in Moscow in April 1920. In

accordance with Lenin's suggestion, Roy delivered a complimentary address at the

Communist International's Second Congress Convention on the Communist revolutionaries'

tactics in submissive India. At the Congress, Lenin's speeches were accepted. Later, he was

chosen to serve on the comintern's Executive Committee. Together with other moderate

Muslims going by the name of Muhajir, he also built an army, but it was ineffective. In

Tashkent, he also established a group called the University of the Toilers of the East to train

11
revolutionaries from other countries who were immigrants. The well-known Ho Chi Minh

studied there.

Roy developed a new concept and termed it as 'Radical Humanism' or 'New

Humanism' with a view to distinguish it from the humanist versions of other

thinkers. It was radical because it rejected many, if not most, of the traditional

political and philosophical assumptions of Indian society. It was humanism because

it focused entirely on the needs and situation of human beings. His weekly journal,

Independent India, which started in 1937, was renamed as The Radical Humanist to

propagate h is views on society and social reconstruction. The word humanism is

derived from the Latin word 'Humanus', which refers to a system of thought

concerned with human affairs in general.

Humanism is an attitude which attaches primary importance to man and his

faculties, affairs and aspirations2. The term 'humanism' is not new and the same

can be traced in the writings of Protagoras, Erasmus, More, Herder, Jacques

Maritain, etc. As the ultimate theoretical construct of M.N. Roy, the philosophy of

'Radical Humanism' or 'New Humanism' represents the zenith of an intellectually

bewildering journey spanning over a period of thirty years. The genesis of the concept

of 'New Humanism' lies in the frustration of Roy with the subtle characteristics of the

Marxian philosophy like its feeble ethical moorings and overemphasis on the economic

interpretation of history to the substantive, if not total , disregard to the value of the

intellect in the dynamics of the historical processes.

Thus, initially Roy tried to evolve a radical perspective on human ism which

still had a lot to owe to Marxism. However, dissatisfied even with his radical

incarnation, Roy made the final move of propounding a theory rooted in integral

2
G.D.Parikh, Op. Cit., p. 42.

12
scientific humanism which he called as the 'New Humanism’, new because it is

human ism enriched, reinforced and elaborated by scientific knowledge and social

experience gained during the centuries of modern civilisation3.

M.N.Roy was a born revolutionary. In his early years he was infl uenced by

Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra, Swami Ramtirtha, Dayanand Saraswati and

Jatin Mukherjee. At the age of fourteen he joined the revolutionary movement for

India's independence .He actively participated in the Swadeshi Movement and anti-

partition movement in Bengal (1905). He was arrested in 1907 in connection with a

political dacoity in Calcutta and in 1910, he was arrested in connection with the

Howrah Conspiracy case. Inspired by revolutionary terrorism, M. N. Roy was

politically baptised when he was entrusted with the task of receiving a German

steamer carrying arms for the revolutionary terrorists.

This 1914 attempt to smuggle arms in ships failed and the plan for an armed

insurrection against the British was aborted. He was arrested in 1915 in connection with

another political dacoity in Calcutta and in the same year he fled to Dutch Indies. He

also went to Java, Philippines, Korea, Manchuria, Japan, China, USA and Mexico. He

reached San Francisco in late 1915. It was here that he came in contact with the Indian

revolutionaries and Indian students who were working for India's struggle for

independence. From USA, M.N. Roy went to Mexico in 1916. Here, he contributed

several articles about India's poverty and the method in which the British were

exploiting Indian resources. Roy founded the first Communist Party in Mexico, the first

in America and outside the European continent and became its Secretary-General.

While he was in Mexico, he was called by V.I. Lenin after the Bolshevik Revolution to

Russia. Roy reached Russia in the beginning of 1920 and became an adviser of the

Bolshevik Party on colonial questions. He attended the second Congress of the

3
Manabendra Nath Roy, The future of Indian politics, R. Bishop Pubs., London, 1926, p.12.

13
Communist International. He put forward h is own thesis and even pointed out the

defects of the resolutions sponsored by Lenin. He had a difference of opinion with Lenin

.In fact, Roy's views were more realistic and Lenin was impressed by this thesis. Roy

was also elected as the member of the Central Asiatic Board by the Communist Party to

propagate the cause of Communism in India4.

In 1922, M.N. Roy, went to Berlin to organise the Indian National revolutionaries

there and also started a journal , 'The Vanguard of Indian Independence '.He was named

a member of the Presidium of the Commintern at its fourth International Congress. He

also insisted for a separate Communist Party in India, to spread communism in a better

way. He also suggested the formation of People's Party with a revolutionary programme.

Gradually he got dissatisfied with the Communist Organisation and on account of

differences with its members, he came back to India in December 1930. On the

invitation of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Roy attended the Karachi Session of the Indian

National Congress held in March 1931. In July 1931 he was, however arrested and

imprisoned for six years. After his release in 1936, he became a member of the Indian

National Congress and wished to organise it on a revolutionary basis. In Apri l, 1937,

he started his weekly, 'Independent India' which was later named as 'Radical Humanist'.

In June 1939, Roy organised the League of Radical Congressmen. He contested the

Presidentship of the Indian National Congress in 1940 but was defeated by Abul Kalam

Azad. After his defeat Roy left the Congress in September 1940.After this he organised

his Radical Democratic Party in December 1940 and moved towards 'New Humanism.

Although M.N. Roy was a powerful exponent of Marxism or Communism during

the early years of his life, but later on he became a pronounced critic of communist

theory and practice. He realised that communism provided no solution to worldly

problems and in communism man is treated as a helpless being dancing to the dictates of
4
V. B. Karnik, M.N. Roy, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 1980, p. 23.

14
economic forces and his individual personality is subordinated for the collective interest.

Therefore he changed over from Marxism to what he called 'Radical Humanism' and

this was a great contribution of M.N. Roy towards Modern Indian Political Thought.

1.1 Towards Communism

The news of Roy’s arrival at San Francisco was somehow published in a local daily,

forcing Roy to flee south to Palo Alto, California near Stanford University. It was here that

Roy, until then known as Narendra Nath Bhattacharya or Naren, changed his name to

Manbendra Nath Roy. This change of name on the campus of Stanford University enabled

Roy to turn his back on a futile past and look forward to a new life of adventures and

achievements.

Roy’s host at Palo Alto introduced him to Evelyn Trent, a graduate student at

Stanford University. Evelyn Trent, who later married Roy, became his political collaborator.

She accompanied him to Mexico and Russia and was of great help to him in his political and

literary work. The collaboration continued until they separated in 19295.

At New York, where he went from Palo Alto, Roy met Lala Lajpat Rai, the well-

known nationalist leader of India. He developed friendships with several American radicals,

and frequented the New York Public Library. Roy also went to public meetings with Lajpat

Rai. Questions asked by the working class audience in these meetings made Roy wonder

whether exploitation and poverty would cease in India with the attainment of independence.

Roy began a systematic study of socialism, originally with the intention of combating it, but

he soon discovered that he had himself become a socialist! In the beginning, nurtured as he

was on Bankimchandra, Vivekanand and orthodox Hindu philosophy, Roy accepted

socialism except its materialist philosophy.

5
Manabendra Nath Roy, New Orientation, Renaissance Publishers, Calcutta, 1946, p.18.

15
 Later in Mexico in 1919, Roy met Michael Borodin, an emissary of the Communist

International. Roy and Borodin quickly became friends, and it was because of long

discussions with Borodin that Roy accepted the materialist philosophy and became a full-

fledged communist.

In 1920, Roy was invited to Moscow to attend the second conference of the

Communist International. Roy had several meetings with Lenin before the Conference. He

differed with Lenin on the role of the local bourgeoisie in nationalist movements. On Lenin’s

recommendation, the supplementary thesis on the subject prepared by Roy was adopted along

with Lenin’s thesis by the second conference of the Communist International. The following

years witnessed Roy’s rapid rise in the international communist hierarchy. By the end of

1926, Roy was elected as a member of all the four official policy making bodies of the

Comintern – the presidium, the political secretariat, the executive committee and the world

congress.

In 1927, Roy was sent to China as a representative of the Communist International.

However, Roy’s mission in China ended in a failure. On his return to Moscow from China,

Roy found himself in official disfavor. In September 1929, he was expelled from the

Communist International for contributing to the Brandler press and supporting the Brandler

organizations. Roy felt that he was expelled from the Comintern mainly because of his claim

to the right of independent thinking6.

1.2 Return to India: Prison Years

6
Sibnarayan Ray, In Freedom's Quest, IV volumes, Calcutta , 2007, p.81.

16
 Roy returned to India in December 1930. He was arrested in July 1931 and tried for

his role in the Kanpur Communist Conspiracy Case. He was sentenced to six years

imprisonment.

When Roy returned to India, he was still a full-fledged communist, though he had

broken from the Commitment. The forced confinement in jail gave him more time than

before for systematic study and reflection. His friends in Germany, especially his future wife,

Ellen Gottschalk, kept providing him books, which he wanted to read. Roy had planned to

use his prison years for writing a systematic study of ‘the philosophical consequences of

modern science’, which would be in a way a re-examination and re-formulation of Marxism

to which he had been committed since 19197.

The reflections, which Roy wrote down in jail, grew over a period of five years into

nine thick volumes. The ‘Prison Manuscripts’ have not so far been published in their totality,

and are currently preserved in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Archives in New

Delhi. However, selected portions from the manuscript were published as separate books in

the 1930s and the 1940s. These writings show that Roy was not satisfied with a primarily

economic explanation of historical processes. He studied and tried to assess the role of

cultural and ideational factors in traditional and contemporary India, in the rise and expansion

of Islam, and in the phenomenon of fascism.

He was particularly severe on the obscurantist professions and practices of neo-Hindu

nationalism. Roy tried to reformulate materialism in the light of latest developments in the

physical and biological sciences. He was convinced that without the growth and development

of a materialist and rationalist outlook in India, neither a renaissance nor a democratic

revolution would be possible. In a way, seeds of the philosophy of new humanism, which was

later developed fully by Roy, were already evident in his jail writings.

1.3 Beyond Communism: Towards New Humanism

7
Dr. Ramendra, M. N. Roy's New Humanism and Materialism, Buddhiwadi Foundation, Patna, 2001, p. 56.

17
 Immediately after his release from jail on 20 November 1936, Roy joined Indian

National Congress along with his followers. He organized his followers into a body called

League of Radical Congressmen. However, in December 1940, Roy and his followers left

Congress owing to differences with the Congress leadership on the role of India in the

Second World War. Thereafter, Roy formed the Radical Democratic Party of his own. This

signaled the beginning of the last phase of Roy’s life in which he developed his philosophy of

new humanism.

After Roy’s release from jail in 1936, Ellen Gottschalk joined Roy in Bombay in

March 1937. They were married in the same month. Subsequently, Ellen Roy played an

important role in Roy’s life, and cooperated in all of his endeavors.

Roy prepared a draft of basic principles of radical democracy before the India

conference of the Radical Democratic Party held in Bombay in December 1946. The draft, in

which his basic ideas were put in the form of theses, was circulated among a small number of

selected friends and associates of Roy. The 22 Theses or Principles of Radical Democracy,

which emerged as a result of intense discussions between Roy and his circle of friends, were

adopted at the Bombay Conference of the Radical Democratic Party. Roy’s speeches at the

conference in connection with the 22 Theses were published later under the title Beyond

Communism.

In 1947, Roy published New Humanism – A Manifesto, which offered an elaboration

of the 22 Theses. The ideas expressed in the manifesto were, according to Roy, developed

over a period of number of years by a group of critical Marxists and former Communists.

Further discussions on the 22 Theses and the manifesto led Roy to the conclusion that

party-politics was inconsistent with his ideal of organized democracy. This resulted in the

dissolution of the Radical Democratic Party in December 1948 and launching of a movement

18
called the Radical Humanist Movement. At the Calcutta Conference, itself where the party

was dissolved, theses 19 and 20 were amended to delete all references to party.

1.4 Final years

In 1946, Roy established the Indian Renaissance Institute at Dehradun. Roy was the

founder-director of the Institute. Its main aim was to develop and organize a movement to be

called the Indian Renaissance Movement.

In 1948, Roy started working on his last major intellectual project. Roy’s magnum

opus Reason, Romanticism and Revolution is a monumental work. The fully written, revised

and typed press copy of the book was ready in April 1952 8. It attempted to combine a

historical survey of western thought with an elaboration of his own system of ideas. While

working on Reason, Romanticism and Revolution, Roy had established contacts with several

humanist groups in Europe and America, which had views similar to his own. The idea

gradually evolved of these groups coming together and constituting an international

association with commonly shared aims and principles. The inaugural congress of the

International Humanist and Ethical Union was planned to be organized in Amsterdam in

1952, and Roy was expected to play an influential role in the congress and in the

development of the IHEU.

However, before going abroad, Roy needed some rest. He and Ellen Roy went up for

a few days from Dehradun to the hill station of Mussoorie. On June 11 1952, Roy met a

serious accident. He fell fifty feet down while walking along a hill track. He was moved to

Dehradun for treatment. On the 25th of August, he had an attack of cerebral thrombosis

resulting in a partial paralysis of the right side. The accident prevented the Roys from

attending the inaugural congress of the IHEU, which was held in August 1952 at Amsterdam.

The congress, however, elected M.N. Roy, in absentia, as one of its vice-presidents and made

8
S. M. Ganguly, Manabendra Nath Roy: An Annotated Bibliography, Bagchi & Co., Calcutta, 1993, p. 125.

19
the Indian Radical Humanist Movement one of the founder members of the IHEU. On

August 15 1953, Roy had the second attack of cerebral thrombosis, which paralyzed the left

side of his body. Roy’s last article dictated to Ellen Roy for the periodical Radical

Humanist was about the nature and organization of the Radical Humanist Movement. This

article was published in the Radical Humanist on 24 January 1954. On January 25 1954, ten

minutes before midnight, M.N. Roy died of a heart attack. He was nearly 67 at that time.

20