Comrade M.N. Roy, the father of ’neo-humanism’ | Suresh Khairnar

Humble greetings today on the occasion of the 71st death anniversary of Comrade M.N. Roy, the father of ’neo-humanism’!

Narendranath Bhattacharya alias Manvendra Nath Roy (M.N. Roy is more popular), this thirteen-year-old boy was born 138 years ago, on 21st March 1887 in Bengal’s 24 Pargana district. That means Narendra was born in the last phase of the nineteenth century. And after crossing thirteen years, he devoted his life as a revolutionary. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he was involved in the activities of Anushilan Samiti in Bengal, and before the age of twenty, he was caught for the crime of political robbery in his village. But he was released due to lack of evidence. But within two years, he was sentenced to twenty months in the Haura case. After getting released from jail, he devoted special time to the promotion of revolutionary activities in Bengal, United Province and Punjab. And in between, the game of getting caught and getting released like cat and mouse continued.

After that, when the First World War started, Narendra was specially given the responsibility to bring arms and ammunition from Germany in 1915. He reached the German embassy in Batavia port of Java in the month of April, under the name of ’Martin’, and returned after negotiating with Germany to send two ships, but for some reason the supplies could not be delivered. So in August, via Australia and Japan, he went to China to meet Dr. Sun Yat-Sen. But he did not succeed in this either. So he came to the conclusion that it was impractical to bring about India’s independence with the help of a few people and that too with foreign help, and he came to the conclusion that India’s freedom movement is possible only with the collective efforts of India’s farmers and workers and the Bahujan Samaj.

But in the meantime, because he travelled to countries like Japan, China, Java, Sumatra, Dutch West Indies, Jamaica, Philippines, etc. and witnessed the imperialist exploitation and saw with his own eyes the efforts of the local people to protest against it, he came to know that the nature of imperialist exploitation is almost the same everywhere.

And due to this, he got tired and went to America to pursue further studies. And from there he gave up his name Narendra Bhattacharya and adopted the name Manvendra Nath Roy, who later became more popularly known as M.N. Roy in short. This name remained with him till his death on 25 January 1954. And today he is known by this name. And Narendra Bhattacharya vanished into oblivion.

It was in America that he was introduced to Marxism. And very soon, he started being counted among the prominent Marxists. In Mexico, America’s neighbour, Mexican farmers and workers were fighting together against American and British exploitation. So M.N. Roy established the Communist Party in Mexico. And after Russia, he has done the historic work of establishing a Communist Party in another country of the world. It is about another country. And he became famous as the leader who led Mexico’s freedom struggle with great success (Lenin of Mexico).

And this thing came to Lenin’s notice, so he specially requested M.N. Roy to come to Russia. This is the turning point of his life. On his way from Mexico to Russia, he went to Spain and Germany, and established the Communist Party in Spain as well. And in Germany too, he got the opportunity to meet many communist leaders. And in the early days of 1919, after reaching Russia and coming to Lenin’s notice, he started being counted among his close associates. And he is one of the founders of the Third Communist International. He has been a special participant in the first five sessions of the Communist International. And has been a member of the Executive Board of the Communist International. And has been one of the members of the Politburo of the Russian Communist Party. And has officially shouldered the responsibility of guiding the countries of the East, mainly India and Asian countries, on behalf of the ’Communist International’.

Born in a poor family in a small village of Twenty-four Parganas, with very little formal education, Narendra Bhattacharya has achieved this much success in less than thirty-five years of age which is nothing less than a miracle.

This means that among the people who have the talent of M.N. Roy and have mastered the five major languages ??of the world i.e. Russian, German, Spanish, English, French, and work as leaders on the world stage, I cannot remember any other name in the world, let alone India. And in English such a person is called a ’Statesman’.

And the most historic thing is that M.N. Roy was the one who worked for the establishment of the Communist Party in India. He established a centre named ’India House’ in Tashkent and gave training to the people of India. And in 1920, after that, while accelerating his activities in Berlin, he tried to establish the Communist Party of China and India and started two newspapers named ’Vanguard’ and ’Masses’ under his editorship. The four-year period from 1924 to 1928 is the most important period of his life.

Similarly, what should be the programme for the Congress? That is also why he has announced the Constituent Assembly for the first time.

As early as 1927 he was sent by the Communist International to work as an adviser to the Chinese Communist Party, and the period 1926-27 was one of the high points of the Chinese revolution.

Due to some mistakes in the strategy of the Communist Party of China to end imperialism in 1925, M.N. Roy, who made a historical document for the peasant revolution in 1926, made a lot of efforts with his talent and advice of the Russian Communist Party. But like him, a Russian Communist Party leader named Borodin was also sent to China, and the responsibility of money and taking many important decisions was on Borodin. And due to his stubborn attitude, despite eight months of tireless efforts, despite M.N. Roy arming 20,000 peasant army, he said that "Chang Kai-shek crushed the revolution because of Borodin’s suicidal decision." M.N. Roy has written all this in detail in his book named ’My Experiences in China’.

The Sixth Congress of the Communist International took a very foolish decision in 1928, and declared the formation of a genuine revolutionary party in place of the Congress, which was to lead India’s freedom struggle, as a party supporting capitalism. Opposing this, he wrote and sent a paper titled ’The Principle of Disenfranchisement’. Since he was ill, he could not be present at that time. And taking advantage of his absence, Kusenin and other delegates called him a stooge of the imperialist countries and a misguided person. And that, because of his writing of an essay against Lenin, he was expelled from the Communist International.

But one has to admire M.N. Roy’s courage, talent and self-confidence because of his differences with the world’s greatest leader Lenin. At his level, he has also taken on people who lead the Communist International.
After a gap of fifteen years from the international political arena, he returned to India at the end of December 1930, assuming the name of Dr. Mahmood, and worked day and night to prepare his comrades. And he started making special efforts for the Karachi Congress, but the British police caught him on 21 July 1931. And he was sentenced to twelve years. But six years earlier, after being released from jail in 1936, he directly attended the Faizpur Congress session. And in that Congress session, he came to the attention of all the delegates due to his particularly notable role in putting forward one proposal after another.

And after that he started a powerful weekly magazine named ’Independent India’ for intellectual awakening in India, especially through writing and speeches. And to make his views known, especially in that magazine, he spent the rest of his life writing and speaking on very sensitive topics like new philosophies like rationalism-humanism, Islam, fascism, and departed this world on 25 January 1954 at the age of 67 in his home in Dehradun.

M.N. Roy’s genius and his work as a leader at the world level did find some followers in India. I had the opportunity to befriend some of them during my stay in Calcutta (1982-97). Especially because of my stay in Bengal, there were people of extraordinary talent like Professor Shivnarayan Roy, senior Bengali journalist and writer Gaur Kishore Ghosh, Professor Amlan Dutt, Barrister V.M. Tarkunde and editor of Maharashtra Times Govind Talwalkar, and Laxman Shastri Joshi, and founder of Indian Secular Society Professor A.B. Shah. But I don’t know why, despite all these great men, the ideological stream of M.N. Roy has been fragmented. And today hardly anyone can be called his follower? And the most surprising thing is that do the young men or women of the present generation hardly know anything about M.N. Roy? And if not, then why not? I had told this repeatedly to all these senior friends also.

I did not get a chance to meet M.N. Roy personally. Because I was only one month old when he left this world. But to make me aware of his thoughts, especially friends like Professor Shivnarayan Roy, Professor Amlan Dutt of Bengal and senior journalist and famous writer of Bengali language Gaurakishor Ghosh and in Marathi Mr. Laxman Shastri Joshi, Mr. D.B. Karnik, Professor A.B. Shah wrote Sahitya Ka Mai Murid Hoon. Today, on the occasion of the 71st death anniversary of M.N. Roy, my humble tribute.

Dr. Suresh Khairnar, 25 January 2025, Nagpur