{"id":325,"date":"2026-05-28T05:57:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kimba.co.in\/iri\/?page_id=325"},"modified":"2026-06-24T03:58:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T03:58:51","slug":"manabendra-nath-roy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/manabendra-nath-roy\/","title":{"rendered":"Manabendra Nath Roy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"\"Manabendra Nath Roy<\/strong>
(21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954)<\/strong><\/p>

M.N. Roy was in many ways a unique person. He distinguished himself both as a man of action and as a man of thought. As a man of action, he was a devoted and dedicated revolutionary. As a man of thought, he developed into a profound and original social philosopher. He passed through three phases of political life. He started as an ardent nationalist, became an equally ardent Communist and ended as a creatively active Radical Humanist: He built ap and propounded the philosophy of Radical Humanism which may well become one of the most relevant philosophies of the future.<\/p>

M.N. Roy was born on 21st March, 1887 in a Brahmin family in a village in West Bengal. His original name was Narendra Nath Bhattacharya. He started taking part in underground revolutionary activity from the age of 14. He was involved in a number of political offences and conspiracy cases. Under the leadership of Jatin Mukherjee, he and his colleagues had prepared a plan for an armed insurrection for the overthrow of British rule. When the First World War commenced, a promise was secured from certain German agents for the supply of arms to Indian revolutionaries. In 1915, Roy went to Java in search of arms from the Germans. That plan having failed, he went a second time to Java for the same purpose. Thereafter he moved from country to country in pursuance of his scheme to secure German arms. Travelling under different names and with fake passports, he went from Java to Japan, from Japan to China, from China back to Japan, and reached San Francisco in June, 1916. Soon thereafter, the United States joined the World War, and Roy and some other Indians were charged in a conspiracy case instituted in San Francisco. Roy evaded the American police and managed to go to Mexico. By that time he had studied the basic books on socialism and communism and had become a socialist. He joined the Mexican Socialist Party and became its organizing secretary. He developed the party organization and was elected its General Secretary. He converted the Socialist Party into the Communist Party of Mexico at an extra-ordinary conference. He thus became the founder of the first Communist Party outside Soviet Russia.
Roy was invited to Moscow to attend the Second Conference of the Communist International which was to be held in July-August, 1920. Roy reached Moscow prior to the conference and had discussions with Lenin on the national liberation movements in colonial countries like India and China. He differed with Lenin to some extent on the role of colonial capitalist classes in the movements for national liberation. On Lenin’s suggestion, the “Theses on the National and Colonial Question” prepared by him and those prepared by Roy were both placed before the Second Conference of the Communist International for acceptance. Both the Theses were adopted by the Conference.
Roy came to occupy a high position in all the policy-making bodies of the Communist International. His main work at that time was to develop a Communist movement in India. He managed to send a number of Communist emissaries as well as literature to India. He has been recognized as the founder of the Indian Communist Party.
By 1927 Stalin had started his peculiar tactics for the liquidation or expulsion of all persons of independent thinking from the Russian Communist Party and the Communist International. Roy was one of the victims of those tactics. Roy wrote some articles for the press of what was known as the German Communist Opposition, criticizing some of the policies adopted by the Communist International. For this offence he was turned out from the Comintern in 1929.
Roy now decided to go to India, although he knew that he would be arrested in India and would have to suffer a long term of imprisonment. He had been accused No. 1 in the famous Kanpur Conspiracy case of 1924, but could not be tried at that time because he was out of India. Roy was prepared to pay the price of a long period of incarceration in order to participate in the Indian freedom movement.
Roy came to India incognito in December, 1930, was arrested in July, 1931 and was tried and sentenced to imprisonment of 12 years on the charge of conspiracy to overthrow the British Government. The sentence was reduced to six years in appeal.
After completing his sentence Roy was released from Dehradun jail on 20th November, 1936. Immediately thereafter, he issued a public appeal asking the people to join the Indian National Congress in millions. At the same time, he made it clear that the nationalist movement could not be strengthened unless it underwent a process of radicalization and democratization. He urged that the Indian National Congress should be built up from below by organizing village and taluka Congress Committees and by vitalizing them on the basis of a socio-economic programme of democratic freedom and radical agrarian reform.
His idea was to develop the Indian National Congress, with its network of village and taluka Committees, as a State within the State. The plan was that at an appropriate time, the Congress as the alternate State would give a call for convening a Constituent Assembly to frame the constitution of free India and that the call would be the signal for the launching of the Indian revolution for democratic freedom.
On the basis of this radical programme, the followers of Roy started work in a large number of rural and urban centres in the country and within a couple of years they became a force to be contended with. In 1940, however, Roy and his followers had to part company with the Indian National Congress because of their difference on the issue of India’s participation in the Second World War.
When the “phony” stage of the Second World War was over and the Nazi armies invaded France in April, 1940, Roy declared that the war had become an anti-Fascist War and that it was necessary for the very survival of democracy throughout the world that the war efforts of the Allied Powers should be supported at all costs. “If Fascism succeeds in establishing its domination over the whole of Europe,” Roy declared, “then good-bye to revolution and good-bye to Indian freedom as well.” He also confidently predicted that “…the defeat of Fascism will weaken imperialism” and would bring India nearer to the goal of democratic freedom.
The leaders of the Indian National Congress were, however, of a different opinion. They declared that the Indian people would support the war efforts only if the British Government agreed to set up a National Government in India with full autonomy over defence and foreign affairs. Roy disapproved of this offer of conditional support, because it implied that the war efforts would be opposed if the condition was not accepted. Roy argued that since the success in the anti-Fascist war was necessary for India’s democratic freedom, we could not put conditions on our offer to help in achieving that success. On this issue Roy and his friends left the Indian National Congress and formed a separate party, called the Radical Democratic Party, in December, 1940.
As early as in December, 1942 Roy expressed the view that the Fascist Powers were going to be defeated in the war and that India would get national freedom as a result of the socio-economic changes which were taking place in Great Britain and the allied countries during the course of the anti-Fascist struggle. Roy’s anticipations were proved correct. SHistorians are agreed that India got national freedom largely as a result of the liberating forces generated by the defeat of international Fascism.
When it became clear to him that the Fascist Powers were going to be defeated in the war, Roy switched his attention to the post-war reconstruction of India. He got prepared two basic documents in 1943 and 1944, one the “People’s Plan for Economic Development of India” and the second a “Draft Constitution of Free India”. The documents contained Roy’s original contributions to the country’s economic and political problems.
Contrary to the economic thinking which was then current, Roy gave priority in the People’s Plan to the development of agriculture and small-scale industry. Production under the People’s Plan was to be for use and not for profit, and the objective of economic planning was to supply the primary needs of the people consisting of food, shelter, clothing, education and medicine.
The Indian State, according to the Draft Constitution of Free India, was to be organised on the basis of a countrywide network of People’s Committees, having wide powers such as initiating legislation, expressing opinion on pending bills, recall of representatives and referendum on important national issues. The idea of People’s Committees subsequently popularised by Jayaprakash Narayan was mainly derived from Roy’s Draft Constitution of Free India.
After the end of the war, Roy began to express his heretical views regarding Communism and Marxism. He differed with Marxism mainly on the role of ideas in human history and on the primacy of moral values. He summarised the philosophy which he was propagating in a number of Theses. These came to be known as the 22 Theses of Radical Humanism. He also issued a manifesto on New Humanism.
The 22 Theses outline the principles of the personal and social philosophy of Radical Humanism. The basic values of freedom, rationalism and morality are traced in the Theses to man’s biological evolution. It is pointed out that quest for freedom and search for truth constitute the basic urge of human progress. The Theses emphasize the inseparability of political and economic freedom and indicate how the comprehensive ideal of political and economic freedom may be achieved.
Further discussion of the principles enunciated in the 22 Theses and the Manifesto led Roy to the conclusion that party politics was inconsistent with the ideal of democracy and that it was liable to degenerate into power politics. Roy was of the view that political power in a democracy should reside in primary organizations of the people such as People’s Committees and should not be usurped by any political party. He was further of the view that particularly in countries like India, where a major section of the electorate was illiterate, party politics was bound to become an unprincipled scramble for power. These ideas led to the dissolution of the Radical Democratic Party in an All India Conference held in December, 1948 and the launching of a movement called the Radical Humanist Movement.
One of the new ideas developed by Roy during his Radical Humanist phase related to the concept of “cooperative\u201d economy. In a cooperative economy, the means of production would not belong either to the capitalist class or to the State. They would belong to the workers themselves. Roy was of the view that cooperative economy was superior to both capitalism and State ownership.<\/p>

By the end of the year 1944 it become certain that India was going to get freedom from the British. While other leaders of the political movement were concentrating on as to how and in what manner independence would be formally realized, Roy was of the view that political movement was only a means to an end. Blind faith, superstition and backwardness prevailed among the masses. According to him the objective of the political movement was to bring our country out of backwardness and place it in the forefront of human progress. He felt it a historically necessity for India to make a similar experience as of European renaissance in order to come out of the twilight of a long period of social and cultural stagnation. In the Gandhian era of the national movement Roy was the only national leader of note to emphasize the importance of the renaissance movement. To be successful a social and philosophical movement must be preceded by a philosophical revolution that was the key note of his teaching. He advocated the setting up of renaissance clubs all over the country and in the last phase of his life he retired from active politics and devoted himself to the development of renaissance movement. He realized the difficulties faced by the renaissance movement as there was revivalist movement dominating psychological atmosphere of the country. He said that revivalist movement is a positive danger to the renaissance movement and therefore the object should be to discover moral sanction for reactionary ideas and ideals which are bred in the cesspool of social and cultural backwardness. He said \u201c Idealization of the imaginary unity and social harmony of a legendary golden age serves the purpose of totalitarianism nationalism, which would oppose perennial social conflicts breaking out in a mighty movement of Indian Renaissance\u201d. He said that our present misfortune is due to the fact that India did not her renaissance movement. He appealed to the people to be rational, critical, inspired with the spirit of inquiry and not take things simply for granted. He said \u2018 The prisoners of the past can never be the masters of the future\u2019.With this end in view he established Indian Renaissance Institute in 1946 along with his wife Ellen Roy and his colleague V.M. Tarkunde. The Indian Renaissance Institute proposes to be that intellectual brotherhood, engaged in the historical task of submitting tradition to a critical examination with the object of discovering our immortal heritage, which will illumine the path to a more glorious future. He died on 25th January 1954 at Dehradun.
Roy was an intellectual giant. He was a constant source of original ideas. Throughout his life, he applied his great intellectual powers in the service of the ideal of freedom. Freedom was the basic inspiration and consuming passion of his entire life.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT<\/strong><\/p>

This statement was prepared by M.N. Roy in 1952 while applying for visa for the United States in connection with his proposed visit to that country. – <\/em>Sibnarayan Ray<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I was born as\u00a0 Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, and adopted the name of M. N. Roy while in the United States of America, and have no other aliases. Identifying data: Height 6 ft. 2 inches.<\/p>

The name of my father was Dinabandhu Bhattacharya; my mother\u2019s name was Basanta Kumari.<\/p>

I entered the United States as Martin; I came by sea and landed in San Francisco. I remember neither Martin\u2019s first name, nor the date when I landed, but it was in spring 1916.<\/p>

I left the United States as Martin in summer 1917, but do not remember the exact date either. I left by train for Mexico, as M.N. Roy.<\/p>

Until the age of 16, I lived first in the village Arbalia, and from school-going age in the village Kodalia, both in the District 24 Parganas, Bengal.<\/p>

After I left India early in 1915, I spent over a year traveling through South-East Asia Indonesia, China, Japan, Philippines, until I came to America, where I spent just about a year. Thereafter, I lived for two and a half years in Mexico; then in Russia from 1919 until 1928, in which year I broke with the Communist International.<\/p>

Thereafter I lived for two and a half years in Germany, and left at the end of 1930 for India, where I spent six years in jail under the charge of \u201cConspiring to deprive the King of his Sovereignty in India,\u201d On coming out of jail at the end of 1936, I lived in Bombay for once and a half year, and since May 1938 at my present residence, 13, Mohini Road, Dehradun, U.P.<\/p>

As regards party affiliations, in 1918 I founded the Communist Party of Mexico and from 1919 was a member of the Communist International. I never belonged to any other organization abroad. I was elected a member of the Presidium and of the Secretariat of the Communist International, in charge of organizing the communist movement in Asia and of the training and education of Asiatic Communists in the Eastern University of Moscow. Apart from these services, I had no contributions like money or things of value to make.<\/p>

In 1928, I severed my relations with the Communist International for reasons of disagreement regarding both the theory and practice of Communism.<\/p>

After my release from jail in India, I joined the Indian National Congress, and was a member of its All-India Committee until the war, when I severed my relations with the Congress because of disagreement on the question of co-operation with the war efforts, as my advocating support to the war was incompatible with the Congress policy of anti-war activities.<\/p>

I thereupon founded, together with other Congressmen who agreed with my ideas and policy, the Radical Democratic Party of India in 1940, which was dissolved in 1948, when it appeared that party politics was incompatible with the philosophy of Radical Humanism, to which I and my co-workers subscribe.<\/p>

Since then I have belonged to no political organization, occupying myself with philosophical and historical writing, as Founder-Director of the Indian Renaissance Institute, Dehradun, Which is a cultural-educational organization founded with the object of re-educating the educators and young intellectuals of India in the spirit and with the ideas of Radical (or Integral) Humanism.<\/p>

M.N.Roy<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manabendra Nath Roy(21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954) M.N. Roy was in many ways a unique person. He distinguished himself both as a man of action and as a man of thought. As a man of action, he was a devoted and dedicated revolutionary. As a man of thought, he developed into a profound…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":327,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-325","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianrenaissanceinstitute.org\/iri\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}