M. N. Roy মানবেন্দ্রনাথ রায়
Manabendra Nath Roy
Born	(1887-03-21)21 March 1887 Changripota, 24 Parganas, Bengal, British India
Died	25 January 1954(1954-01-25) (aged 66)
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Ethnicity	Bengali Hindu
Alma mater	Bengal Technical Institute, Communist University of the Toilers of the East
Organization	Jugantar, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of Mexico,
Political movement	Indian Independence movement, Indo-German Conspiracy, Communism, New Communism

Manabendra Nath Roy (Bengali: মানবেন্দ্রনাথ রায়) (1887 - 1954), born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya and popularly known as M. N. Roy, was an Indian nationalist revolutionary and an internationally known radical activist and political theorist. Roy was a founder of the Communist Parties in both Mexico and India and was a delegate to congresses of the Communist International. Following the rise of Joseph Stalin, Roy left the mainline communist movement to pursue an independent radical politics. In 1940 Roy was instrumental in the formation of the Radical Democratic Party, an organization in which he played a leading role for much of the decade of the 1940s. Roy later moved away from Marxism to become an exponent of the philosophy of Radical Humanism.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

According to Dr. Bhaskar Bhole^[1] the birth year of M. N. Roy is 1893. Dr. Bhole claims that according to one of Roy's colleagues Mr. Avinash Bhattacharya, Roy was born in Bengali year 1293(i.e. 1886-87 a.d.) V. B. Karnik one of Roy's biographers^[2] quotes his birth date in the Marathi Vishwakosh ^[3] as 21st March 1887. According to Police records 1888 is his birth year. But 1893 must be his correct birth year as the Radical Humanist^[4] in its February 1953 issue mentions that Roy has completed 60 years.

Narendra Nath "Naren" Bhattacharya, later known as M.N. Roy, was born on 21 March 1887 at Arbelia, located in the 24 Parganas of West Bengal, near Calcutta (Kolkata).^[5]

The Bhattacharyas were Sakta brahmins — a family of hereditary priests.^[6] Naren's paternal grandfather was the head priest of the goddess Ksheputeswari in the village of Ksheput, located in the Midnapore district of West Bengal.^[6] Naren's father also served for a time in priestly capacity there, although the large size of his family — he being one of 11 siblings — forced a relocation to the village of Arbelia and a change of occupation.^[6]

Following the death of his first wife, the elder Bhattacharya married Basantakumari Devi, the niece of Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan and was appointed as a teacher of Sanskrit in the nearby Arbelia English school.^[7] The couple had a total of eight children, including the fourth-born Naren.^[6]

Naren Bhattacharya's early schooling took place at Arbelia.^[7] In 1898 the family moved to Kodalia.^[7] Bhattacharya continued his studies at the Harinavi Anglo-Sanskrit School, at which his father taught, until 1905.^[7]

Bhattacharya later enrolled at the National College under Sri Aurobindo, before moving to the Bengal Technical Institute, where he studied Engineering and Chemistry.^[7] Much of Bhattacharya's knowledge was gained through self-study, however.^[7]

Nationalist revolutionary[link]

Towards the end of the 19th Century militant nationalism began to spread among the educated middle classes of Bengal, inspired by the writings of Bankim and Vivekananda.^[8] Naren Bhattacharya was swept up in this movement, reading both of these leading luminaries extensively.^[8]

According to one biographer, Roy gained an appreciation from Bankim that true religion required one not to be cloistered from the world, but to work actively for the public good; Vivekananda reinforced this notion of social service and further advanced the idea that Hinduism and Indian culture was superior to anything the western world could offer.^[9]

With his cousin and childhood friend Hari Kumar Chakravarti (1882-1963), he formed a band of free-thinkers including Satcowri Banerjee and the brothers, Saileshvar and Shyamsundar Bose. Two other cousins of Bhattacharya and Chakravarti — Phani and Narendra Chakravarti — often came from Deoghar, where they went to school with Barin Ghosh.^[10] A mysterious Vedic scholar, Mokshadacharan Samadhyayi, active organiser of secret branches of the Anushilan Samiti in Chinsura started frequenting Bhattacharya group.

In July 1905 a partition of Bengal was announced, scheduled to take effect in October. A spontaneous mass movement aimed at annulment of the partition emerged, giving radical nationalists like Naren Bhattacharya and his co-thinkers an opportunity to build broader support for their ideas.^[11] Following his expulsion from high school for organizing a meeting and a march against the partition, Bhattacharya and Chakravarti moved to Kolkata and joined in the active work of the Anushilan.^[11]

Under Mokshada’s leadership, on 6 December 1907 Bhattacharya successfully committed the first act of political banditry in order to raise money for the secret society. When arrested, he was carrying two seditious books by Barin Ghosh. Defended by the Barrister J.N. Roy (close friend of Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin) and the pleader Promothonath Mukherjee, he got released on bail, thanks to his reputation as a student and social worker.^[12]

Unhappy with Barin’s highly centralised and authoritative way of leadership, Bhattacharya and his group had been looking for something more constructive than making bombs at the Maniktala garden. Two incidents sharpened their interest in an alternative leadership. Barin had sent Prafulla Chaki with Charuchandra Datta to see Bagha Jatin at Darjeeling who was posted there on official duty, and do away with the Lt. Governor; on explaining to Prafulla that the time was not yet ripe, Jatin promised to contact him later. Though Prafulla was much impressed by this hero, Barin cynically commented that it would be too much of an effort for a Government officer to serve a patriotic cause. Shortly after, Phani returned from Darjeeling, after a short holiday: fascinated by Jatin’s charisma, he informed his friends about the unusual man. On hearing Barin censuring Phani for disloyalty, Bhattacharya decided to see that exceptional Dada and got caught for good.^[13]

The Howrah-Shibpur Trial (1910–11) brought Bhattacharya closer to Jatindra Mukherjee.

The Indo-German conspiracy[link]

Many Indian nationalists, including Roy, became convinced that only an armed struggle against the occupying forces of Great Britain would be sufficient to separate India from the British empire. To the furtherance of this end, revolutionary nationalists looked to a rival imperial power, that of Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, as a potential source of funds and armaments.

In August 1914 a massive European war erupted between Britain and Germany. Expatriate Indian nationalists organized as the Indian Revolutionary Committee in Berlin made an informal approach to the German government in support of aid to the cause of anti-British armed struggle in their native land.^[14] These contacts were favorable and towards the end of the year word reached India that the Germans had agreed to provide the money and material necessary for the launch of an Indian war of independence from British rule.^[14] Revolution seemed near.^[14]

The task of obtaining funds and armaments for the coming struggle was entrusted to Naren Bhattacharya.^[14] Bhattacharya was dispatched first to Java, where over the next two months he was able to obtain some limited funds, albeit no armaments.^[14]

Early in 1915, Bhattacharya set out again, leaving India in search of vaguely promised German armaments which were believed to be en route, somewhere on the Pacific.^[15] Roy would not see his homeland again for 16 years.^[15]

The actual plan seemed fantastic, as Bhattacharya-Roy later recounted in his posthumously-published memoirs:

"The plan was to use German ships interned in a port at the norther tip of Sumatra, to storm the Andaman Islands and free and arm the prisoners there, and land the army of liberation on the Orissa coast. The ships were armoured, as many big German vessels were, ready for wartime use. they also carried several guns each. The crew was composed of naval ratings. They had to escape from the internment camp, seize the ships, and sail.... Several hundred rifles and other small arms with an adequate supply of ammunition could be acquired through Chinese smugglers who would get then on board the ships."^[16]

At the last minute, money for the conduct of the operation failed to materialize and "the German Consul General mysteriously disappeared on the day when he was to issue orders for the execution of the plan," Bhattacharya recalled.^[17]

Disgusted but still holding out hope, Bhattacharya left Indonesia for Japan, hoping to win Japanese support for the liberation of Asia from European imperialism, despite Japan's nominal alliance with Great Britain.^[17] There he met with Chinese nationalist leader Sun Yat-sen, who had escaped to Japan following the failure of a July 1913 uprising in Nanking.^[17]

Sun Yat-sen refused to assist Bhattacharya in his task of organizing anti-British revolution in India, expressing instead faith instead in the ultimate liberating mission of Japan and his own powerlessness owing to British control of Hong Kong, Sun's base of operations in South China.^[18] Efforts to raise money from the German Ambassador to China were likewise unsuccessful.^[19]

Bhattacharya's activities soon drew the attention of the Japanese secret police, who were concerned about Bhattacharya's efforts at fomenting revolution.^[19] Upon learning that he was about to be served formal notice to leave Japan within 24 hours and not wishing to be deported to Shanghai, Bhattacharya immediately set about leaving the country overland through Korea.^[20] He tried to make his way from there to Peking (Beijing), but by this time he was spotted and identified by the British secret police, who detained him.^[21] Only through a stroke of good fortune was Bhattacharya able to win his release from the police, due to the British Consul General's ill ease with holding a British subject indefinitely without having formal charges first been preferred.^[22]

Further efforts to raise funds for armaments from the German consulate at Hankow resulted in a further tentative agreement.^[23] However, this plan also came to naught owing to the size of the commitment, which had to be approved in Berlin, according to German Ambassador to China Admiral Paul von Hintze.^[24] Bhattacharya determined to take his plan for German funding next to the German Ambassador in the United States, before heading to Germany itself.^[24] Employees of the German embassy were able to assist Bhattacharya in obtaining a place as a stowaway aboard an American ship with a German crew, bound for San Francisco.^[24]

Although they knew he was onboard the ship, British authorities stopping the vessel in international waters were unable to locate Bhattacharya in the secret compartment in which he was hurriedly hidden.^[25] In an effort to throw the British off his trail — and in an effort to obtain more suitable accommodations for the long trans-Pacific voyage, Bhattacharya stealthily disembarked at Kobe, Japan.^[26]

In Kobe Bhattacharya made use of a false French-Indian passport previously obtained for him by the Germans in China.^[26] Posing as a seminary student bound for Paris, Bhattacharya obtained an American passport visa, bought a ticket, and sailed for San Francisco.^[26]

International revolutionary[link]

During his stay in Palo Alto, a period of about two months, Roy met his future wife, a young Stanford University graduate named Evelyn Trent. The pair fell in love and journeyed together across the country to New York City.^[27]

It was in the New York City public library that Roy began to develop his interest in Marxism.^[28] His socialist transition under Lala owed much to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s essays on communism and Vivekananda’s message of serving the proletariat. Bothered by British spies, Roy fled to Mexico in July 1917 with Evelyn. German military authorities, on the spot, gave him large amounts of money.

The Mexican president Venustiano Carranza and other liberal thinkers appreciated Roy’s writings for El Pueblo. The Socialist Party he founded (December 1917), was converted into the Communist Party of Mexico, the first Communist Party outside Russia. The Roys lodged a penniless Mikhail Borodin, the Bolshevik leader, under special circumstances. On the basis of a grateful Borodin’s reports on Roy’s activities, Moscow was to invite Roy to the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow during the summer of 1920.

A few weeks before the Congress, Vladimir Lenin personally received Roy with great warmth. At Lenin's behest, Roy formulated his own ideas as a supplement to Lenin’s Preliminary Draft Theses on the National and the Colonial Questions.^[29]

Material from Roy's pen was published by International Press Correspondence (Inprecor), the weekly bulletin of the Communist International. Roy served as a member of the Comintern's Presidium for eight years^[30] and at one stage was a member of the Presidium, the Political Secretariat, the Executive Committee, and the World Congress.

Commissioned by Lenin to prepare the East — especially India — for revolution, Roy founded military and political schools in Tashkent. In October 1920, as he formed the Communist Party of India, he contacted his erstwhile revolutionary colleagues who, at this juncture, were hesitating between Radicalism (Jugantar) and Mohandas K. Gandhi’s novel programme. Close to the Jugantar in spirit and action, C. R. Das inspired Roy’s confidence. From Moscow, Roy published his major reflections, India in Transition, almost simultaneously translated into other languages. In 1922 appeared Roy’s own journal, the Vanguard, organ of the emigre Communist Party of India. These were followed by The Future of Indian Politics (1926) and Revolution and Counter-revolution in China (1930), while he had been tossing between Germany and France.

Leading a Comintern delegation appointed by Joseph Stalin to develop agrarian revolution in China, Roy reached Canton in February 1927. Despite fulfilling his mission with skill, a disagreement with the CCP leaders and Borodin led him to a fiasco. Roy returned to Moscow where factions supporting Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinoviev were busy fighting with Stalin’s.

Stalin refused to meet Roy and give him a hearing at the plenum in February 1928. Denied a decent treatment for an infected ear, Roy escaped with Nikolai Bukharin’s help, sparing himself Stalin’s anger. Shortly after Trotsky’s deportation, on 22 May 1928, Roy received the permission to go abroad for medical treatment on board a Berlin-bound plane of the Russo-German Airline Deruluft.^[31] In December 1929, the Inprecor announced Roy’s expulsion from the Comintern, almost simultaneously with Bukharin’s fall from grace.

Imprisonment[link]

Roy returned to India for the first time in December 1930.^[32] Upon reaching Bombay, Roy met leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Bose, the former of whom recalled that despite significant political differences, "I was attracted to him by his remarkable intellectual capacity.”^[33]

Roy's political activity in India proved to be brief, on 21 July 1931 he was arrested in Bombay on an arrest warrant issued in 1924.^[32] Roy was taken to Kanpur to face charges under Section 121-A of the Indian Penal Code, "conspiring to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty in India."^[32]

No trial was held in open court; rather, the proceedings were conducted inside the jail in which Roy was held.^[34] Roy was not allowed neither trial by jury nor defence witnesses, nor was he allowed to make a defence statement.^[35] Proceedings were conducted from 3 November 1931 until 9 January 1932, at which time Roy was sentenced to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment.^[35]

Roy was taken immediately under armed guard to the Central Jail at Bareilly for completion of his sentence managing, however, to smuggle out the defence statement which he was not allowed to present in court.^[35] This disallowed declaration was published in full by Roy's supporters in India as My Defence, and in abridged form in New York as I Accuse.^[35]

Roy was unapologetic for his advocacy of the use of armed struggle against British colonialism, in his own defence declaring

Roy filed an appeal in his case to the Allahabad High Court, but this was dismissed on 2 May 1933 — although Roy's sentence was at the same time reduced from 12 years to 6 by the court.^[35] Roy ultimately served 5 years and 4 months of this term, sitting in five different jails.^[35] Dismal prison conditions took a severe toll on Roy's health, and he suffered lasting damage to his heart, kidneys, lungs, and digestive tract as a result of his time behind bars.^[37] Roy also lost several teeth, was frequently feverish, and suffered constant pain from a chronically infected inner ear.^[37]

Despite his imprisonment, Roy still managed to contribute to the Indian national liberation movement. A steady stream of letters and articles were smuggled out of jail. He also wrote a 3000-page draft manuscript provisionally titled The Philosophical Consequence of Modern Science.

Released in November 1936 in broken health, Roy went to Allahabad for recovery, invited by Nehru. Defying the Comintern order to boycott the Indian Congress, Roy urged Indian Communists to join this Party to radicalise it. Nehru, in his presidential address at Faizpur session in December 1936, greeted the presence of Roy, as

From the podium Roy in his speech recommended the capture of power by Constituent Assembly. Unable to collaborate with Gandhi, however, Roy was to stick to his own conviction. In April 1937, his weekly Independent India appeared and was welcomed by progressive leaders like Bose and Nehru, unlike Gandhi, and the staunch Communists who accused Roy of deviation.

Radical humanist[link]

In marrying Ellen Gottschalk, “Roy found not only a loving wife but also an intelligent helper and close collaborator.”^[39] They settled in Dehra Dun. Roy proposed an alternative leadership, seized the crisis following Bose’s re-election as the Congress President, in 1938: in Pune, in June, he formed his League of Radical Congressmen. Disillusioned with both bourgeois democracy and communism, he devoted the last years of his life to the formulation of an alternative philosophy which he called Radical Humanism and of which he wrote a detailed exposition in Reason, Romanticism and Revolution.

In his monumental biography, In Freedom’s Quest, Sibnarayan Ray writes:

With the declaration of World War II, Roy (in a position close to that of Sri Aurobindo) condemned the rising totalitarian regimes in Germany and Italy, instead supporting England and France in the fight against fascism. He severed connections with the Congress Party and created the Radical Democratic Party in 1940. Gandhi proceeded to foment Quit India in August 1942. In response The British imprisoned without trial almost the entire Indian National Congress leadership within hours. Roy’s line was clearly different from that of the mainstream of the national liberation movement. According to Roy, a victory for Germany and the Axis powers would have resulted in the end of democracy worldwide and India would never be independent. In his view India could win her freedom only in a free world. Subhas Chandra Bose took the pro-active stance that The enemy of my enemy is my friend; escaping house-arrest and India he formed the Azad Hind Provisional Indian Government in Exile and allied with the Japanese brought the Indian National Army to India's doorstep.

Sensing India’s freedom to be a post-war reality following the defeat of the Axis powers and the weakening of British imperialism, Roy wrote a series of articles in Independent India on the economic and political structures of new India, even presenting a concrete ten-year plan, and drafting a Constitution of Free India (1944).

Roy in his philosophy devised means to ensure human freedom and progress. Remembering Bagha Jatin who “personified the best of mankind”, Roy worked “for the ideal of establishing a social order in which the best in man could be manifest.” In 1947, he elaborated his theses into a manifesto, New Humanism, expected to be as important as the Communist Manifesto by Marx a century earlier.^[41]

Death and legacy[link]

A lecture tour to the USA was to be suspended, as Roy died on 25 January 1954.

Beginning in 1987, Oxford University Press began the publication of the Selected Works of M.N. Roy. A total of 4 volumes were published through 1997, gathering Roy's writings through his prison years. Project editor Sibnarayan Ray died in 2008, however,^[42] and the Roy works publishing project was therefore prematurely terminated.

Footnotes[link]

Works[link]

Note: Adapted from "A Checklist of the Writings of M.N. Roy" in M.N. Roy's Memoirs. Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1984; pp. 607-617.

• La voz de la India (The Voice of India). Mexico City: n.p., n.d. [c. 1917].
• La India: Su Pasado, Su Presente y Su Porvenir (India: Its Past, Its Present, and Its Future). Mexico City: n.p., 1918.
• Indien (India). Hamburg: Verlag der Kommunistischen Internationale, 1922.
• India in Transition. With Abani Mukherji. Geneva: J.B. Target, 1922.
• What Do We Want? Geneva: J.B. Target, 1922.
• One Year of Non-Cooperation from Ahmedabad to Gaya. With Evelyn Roy. Calcutta: Communist Party of India, 1923. —Imprint probably fictitious.
• India's Problem and Its Solution. n.c.: n.p., n.d. [c. 1923].
• Political Letters. Zurich: Vanguard Bookshop, 1924. —Alternate title: Letters to Indian Nationalists.
• Cawnpore Conspiracy Case: An Open Letter to the Rt. Hon. J.R. MacDonald. London: Indian Defence Committee, 1924.
• The Aftermath of Non-Cooperation: Indian Nationalism and Labour Politics. London: Communist Party of Great Britain, 1926.
• The Future of Indian Politics. London: R. Bishop [Communist Party of Great Britain], 1926.
• Our Task in India. n.c.: Bengal Committee of the Revolutionary Party of the Indian Working Class, n.d. [c. 1932].
• "I Accuse!" : From the Suppressed Statement of Manabendra Nath Roy on Trial for Treason before Sessions Court, Cawnpore, India. New York: Roy Defense Committee of India, 1932. —Title of unexpurgated Indian edition: My Defence.
• Congress at Crossroads, by a Congressman (M.N. Roy). Bombay: Independence of India League, [c. 1934].
• On Stepping Out of Jail. Bombay: V.B. Karnik, n.d. [c. 1936].
• Letters by M.N. Roy to the Congress Socialist Party, Written in 1934. Bombay: Renaissance Publishing Co., 1937.
• The Historical Role of Islam: An Essay on Islamic Culture. Bombay: Vora, 1937.
• Presidential Address of M.N. Roy, United Provinces Youths' Conference, May 29th and 30th, 1937, Sitapur. Bombay: R.D. Nadkarni, n.d. [1937].
• Materialism and Spiritualism: Presidential Address of M.N. Roy at the 3rd Session of the Madras Presidency Radical Youths' Conference, Held at Madras on 25th July 1937. Bombay: R.D. Nadkarni, n.d. [1937].
• My Crime. Bombay: Ramesh D. Nadkarni, n.d. [c. 1937].
• The Russian Revolution: A Review and the Perspective. Calcutta: D.M. Library, n.d. [c. 1937].
• Presidential Address of Com. M.N. Roy, First Rajputana-Central India Students' Conference, Benwar, 1st and 2nd January 1938. Bombay: n.p., n.d. [1938].
• All-India Sugar Mill Workers' Conference, Gorakhpur, Held on April 30th and May 1st, 1938: Presidential Address by Manabendra Nath Roy. Gorakhpur: n.p., n.d. [1938].
• Fascism: Its Philosophy, Professions and Practice. Calcutta: D.M. Library, 1938.
• On the Congress Constitution. Calcutta: "Independent India" Office, 1938.
• Our Differences. With V.B. Karnik. Calcuta: Saraswaty Library, 1938.
• Our Problems. With V.B. Karnik. Calcutta; Barendra Library, 1938.
• Gandhi vs. Roy: Containing Com. Roy's Letter to Gandhiji, the Latter's Reply and the Former's Rejoinder. Bombay: V.B. Karnik, 1939.
• Heresies of the Twentieth Century: Philosophical Essays. Bombay: Renaissance Publishers, 1939.
• Presidential Address by M.N. Roy at the First All-India Conference of the League of Radical Congressmen, Poona, 27th and 28th June 1939. Bombay: n.p., n.d. [1939].
• Tripuri and After. Nasik: Radical Congressmen's League, n.d. [1930s].
• Which Way, Lucknow? By a Radical Congressman (M.N. Roy). Bombay: M.R. Shetty, n.d. [1930s].
• The Memoirs of a Cat. n.c. [Dehra Dun]: Renaissance Publishers, 1940.
• Whither Europe? Bombay: Vora, 1940.
• The Alternative. Bombay: Vora, 1940.
• From Savagery to Civilisation. Calcutta: Digest Book House, 1940.
• Gandhism, Nationalism, Socialism. Calcutta: Bengal Radical Club, 1940.
• Science and Superstition. Dera Dun: Indian Renaissance Association, 1940.
• Materialism: An Outline of the History of Scientific Thought. Dera Dun: Renaissance Publishers, 1940.
• World Crisis (International Situation). (contributor) Ahmedabad: Gujrat Radical Democratic People's Party, 1940.
• The Relation of Classes in the Struggle for Indian Freedom. Patna: Bihar Radical Democratic People's Party, n.d. [c. 1940].
• Science, Philosophy and Politics. Moradabad: J.S. Agarwal, n.d. [c. 1940].
• A New Path: Manifesto and Constitution of the Radical Democratic Party. Bombay: V.B. Karnik, n.d. [c. 1940].
• Twentieth Century Jacobinism: Role of Marxism in Democratic Revolution. Patna: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [c. 1940].
• Some Fundamental Problems of Mass Mobilization. Calcutta: D. Goonawardhana, n.d. [c. 1940].
• My Differences with the Congress: Speech at Allahbad University, November 27, 1940. Bombay: V.B. Karnik, League of Radical Congressmen, n.d. [c. 1940].
• On Communal Question. With V.B. Karnik. Lucknow: A.P. Singh, n.d. [c. 1940].
• Culture at the Crossroads: Cultural Requisites of Freedom. Calcutta: Leftist Book Club, n.d. [1940s].
• Radical Democratic Party's Message to the USSR. Calcutta: D. Goonawardhan, n.d. [1940s].
• Presidential Address by Com. M.N. Roy at the Maharashtra Provincial Conference of the Radical Democratic Party held at Poona on 22nd and 23rd March, 1941. Bombay: V.B. Karnik, n.d. [1941].
• The Ideal of Indian Womanhood. n.c. [Dehra Dun?]: Renaissance Publishers, 1941.
• Problem of the Indian Revolution. Bombay: Rajaram Panday, 1941.
• All-India Anti-Fascist Trade Union Conference: Presidential Address by M.N. Roy: Lahore, November 29th-30th, 1941. Lahore: M.A. Kahn, n.d. [1941].
• Scientific Politics: Lectures in the All India Political Study Camp, Dehradun, May and June 1940: Held under Auspices of All-India League of Radical Congressmen. Dehra Dun: Indian Renaissance Association, 1942.
• Freedom or Fascism? n.c. [Bombay?]: Radical Democratic Party, 1942.
• India and the War. (contributor) Lucknow: Radical Democratic Party, 1942.
• This War and Our Defence. Karachi: Sind Provincial Radical Democratic Party, 1942.
• War and Revolution: International Civil War. Madras: Radical Democratic Party, 1942.
• Origin of Radicalism in the Congress. Lucknow: S.S. Suri, 1942.
• Library of a Revolutionary: Being a List of Books for Serious Political Study. Lucknow: New Life Union, for the Indian Renaissance Association, 1942.
• This Way to Freedom: Report of the All-India Conference of the Radical Democratic Party held in December, 1942. (contributor) Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, 1942.
• Nationalism: An Antiquated Cult. Bombay: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [c. 1942].
• Nationalism, Democracy, and Freedom. Bombay: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [c. 1942].
• Letters from Jail. n.c. [Dehra Dun?]: Renaissance Publishing, 1943.
• The Communist International. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, 1943.
• What is Marxism? Bombay: n.p., 1943.
• The Future of Socialism: Talk to the Calcutta Students' Club, November 1943. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, n.d. [1943].
• Poverty or Plenty? Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1943.
• Indian Labour and Post-war Reconstruction. Lucknow: A.P. Singh, 1943.
• Indian Renaissance Movement: Three Lectures. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1944.
• The Future of the Middle Class: Lecture Delivered in Poona on May 29th, 1944, in the Annual Spring Lecture Series. Patna: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [1944].
• Constitution of India, A Draft: Endorsed and Released for Public Discussion by the Central Secretariat of the Radical Democratic Party. Delhi: V.B. Karnik, 1944.
• Your Future: An Appeal to the Educated Middle Class. Issued by the Radical Democratic Party. Lucknow: Radical Democratic Party, 1944.
• Planning a New India. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, n.d. [c. 1944].
• National Government or People's Government? Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, n.d. [c. 1944].
• Constitution of Free India, A Draft by M.N. Roy: Endorsed and Released for Public Discussion by the Radical Democratic Party. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, 1945.
• The Last Battles of Freedom: Being the Report of the Calcutta Conference of the Radical Democratic Party, 27th to 30th December, 1944. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [1945].
• Post-War Perspective: A Peep into the Future. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, 1945.
• Future of Democracy in India: Being the Full Text of a Speech Delivered at a Public Meeting Held at the Town Hall, Lucknow, on October 6, 1945. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [1945].
• The Problem of Freedom. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1945.
• My Experiences in China. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1945.
• Sino-Soviet Treaty. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1947.
• Jawaharial Nehru. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [c. 1945].
• INA and the August Revolution. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1946.
• Revolution and Counter-Revolution in China. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1946.
• A New Orientation: Statement on the International Situation. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, 1946.
• A New Orientation: Review and Perspective of the International Struggle for a New World Order of Democratic Freedom, Economic Prosperity, and Cultural Progress. Dehra Dun: Radical Democratic Party, Bengal, 1946.
• New Orientation: Lectures Delivered at the Political Study Camp Held at Dehra Dun, from May 8th to 18th, 1946. With Phillip Spratt. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1946.
• Radical Democratic Party Conference Inaugural Address: Bombay, 20th, 21st, 22nd Dec. 1946: Presidential Address and Resolutions. Bombay: V.B. Karnik, n.d. [1947].
• Principles of Radical Democracy: Adopted by the Third All-India Conference by the Radical Democratic Party of India held in Bombay, 26th to 29th December 1946. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, 1947. —Attributed to Roy.
• Leviathan and Octopus. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, n.d. [1947].
• Asia and the World: A Manifesto. Delhi: Radical Democratic Party, 1947.
• Science and Philosophy. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1947.
• New Humanism: A Manifesto. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1947.
• Beyond Communism. With Philip Spratt. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1947.
• A New Approach to the Communal Program: Lecture Delivered at the International Fellowship, Madras, Feb. 22, 1941. Bombay: V.B. Karnik, n.d. [c. 1947].
• The Russian Revolution. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1949.
• India's Message. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1950.
• The Rhythm of Cosmos: Inaugural Address of the Second All-India Rationalist Conference at Tenali held on Feb. 9th and 10th, 1952. Tenali: n.p., n.d. [1952].
• Radical Humanism. New Delhi: n.p., 1952.
• Reason, Romanticism and Revolution. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1952.
• The Way Ahead in Asia. n.c.: British Information Service in Southeast Asia, n.d. [c. 1950s].
• Crime and Karma, Cats and Women. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1957.
• Memoirs. Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1964. —Reissued 1984.

Further reading[link]

• R.K. Awasthi, Scientific Humanism: Socio-Political Ideas of M.N. Roy: A Critique. Delhi: Research Publications in Social Sciences, 1973.
• Shiri Ram Bakshi, M.N. Roy. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1994.
• G.P. Bhattacharjee, Evolution of Political Philosophy of M.N. Roy. Calcutta: Minerva Associates, 1971.
  • M.N. Roy and Radical Humanism. Bombay: A.J.B.H. Wadia Publication, 1961.
• Phanibhusan Chakravartti, M.N. Roy. Calcutta: M.N. Roy Death Anniversary Observance Committee, 1961.
• Prakash Chandra, Political Philosophy of M.N. Roy. Meerut: Sarup & Sons, 1985.
• Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri, Leftism in India, 1917-1947. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2007.
• Ramyansu Sekhar Das, M.N. Roy the Humanist Philosopher. Calcutta, W. Newman, 1956.
• B.N. Dasgupta, M.N. Roy: Quest for Freedom. Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1970.
• Niranjan Dhar, The Political Thought of M.N. Roy, 1936-1954. Calcutta, Eureka Publishers, 1966.
• S.M. Ganguly, Leftism in India: M.N. Roy and Indian Politics, 1920-1948. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1984.
• Dharmadasa Goonawardhana and Debassaran Das Gupta (eds.), Royism Explained. Calcutta: Saraswaty Library, 1938.
• D.C. Grover, M. N. Roy: a Study of Revolution and Reason in Indian Politics. Calcutta: Minerva Associates, 1973.
• John Patrick Haithcox, Communism and Nationalism in India; M.N. Roy and Comintern Policy, 1920-1939. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.
• V.B. Karnik, M.N. Roy: Political Biography. Bombay: Nav Jagriti Samaj, 1978.
• Usha Krishna, M.N Roy and the Radical Humanist Movement in India: A Sociological Study. Meerut: Chaudhary Charan Singh University, 2005.
• Kris Manjapra, M.N. Roy: Marxism and Colonial Cosmopolitanism. Delhi: Routledge India, 2010.
• Innaiah Narisetti (ed.), M.N. Roy: Radical Humanist: Selected Writings. New York: Prometheus Books, 2004.
• R.L. Nigram, Radical Humanism of M.N. Roy An Exposition of his 22 Theses. n.c.: Indus Publishing Co., n.d.
• Robert C. North and Xenia J. Eudin, M.N. Roy's Mission to China: The Communist-Kuomintang Split of 1927. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963.
• Vishnudeo Narain Ojha, M.N. Roy and His Philosophical Ideas. n.c. [Muzaffarpur]: Shankhnad Prakashan, 1969.
• Alok Pant, Indian Radicalism and M.N. Roy. Delhi: Adhyayan, 2005.
• Govardhan Dhanaraj Parikh (ed.), Essence of Royism: Anthology of M.N. Roy's Writings. Bombay: Nav Jagriti Samaj, 1987.
• Ramendra, M. N. Roy's New Humanism and Materialism. Patna: Buddhiwadi Foundation, 2001.
• Sibnarayan Ray, In Freedom's Quest: Life of M.N. Roy (Vol. 1: 1887-1922). Calcutta: Minerva, 1998.
  • M.N. Roy: Philosopher-Revolutionary: A Symposium. Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1959.
• Dipti Kumar Roy, Leftist Politics in India: M.N. Roy and the Radical Democratic Party. Calcutta: Minerva, 1989.
  • Trade Union Movement in India: Role of M.N. Roy. Calcutta: Minerva, 1990.
• Samaren Roy, The Restless Brahmin: Early Life of M.N. Roy. Bombay: Allied Publishers, 1970.
  • The Twice-Born Heretic: M.N. Roy and the Comintern. Calcutta: KLM Private, 1986.
• B.S. Sharma, The Political Philosophy of M.N. Roy. Delhi, National Publishing House, 1965.
• Sita Ram Sharma, Life and Works of M.N. Roy. Jaipur: Sublime Publications, 2010.
• M. Shiviah, New Humanism and Democratic Politics: A Study of M.N. Roy's Theory of the State. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1977.
• Reeta Sinha, Political Ideas of M.N. Roy. New Delh: National Book Organisation, 1991.
• Sada Nand Talwar, Political Ideas of M.N. Roy. Delhi: Khosla Publishing House, 1978.
• J.B.H. Wadia, M.N. Roy, The Man: An Incomplete Royana. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1983.

External links[link]

• Manabendra Nath Roy Internet Archive, Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/
• "Manabendra Nath Roy," Banglapedia, www.banglapedia.org/

See also[link]

• Hindu-German Conspiracy

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Swāmī Agehānanda Bhāratī (अगेहानन्द भारती) (Vienna, April 20, 1923 – New York, May 14, 1991) was the monastic name of Leopold Fischer, professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University for over 30 years. He was an academic Sanskritist, a writer on religious subjects, and a Hindu monk in the Dasanami Sannyasi order.

Works[link]

• The Tantric Tradition. London : Rider, 1966.
• The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism. Santa Barbara, CA : Ross-Erikson. 1976.
• The Ochre Robe : An Autobiography. Second Revised Edition, with New Epilog. Santa Barbara, CA : Ross-Erikson, 1980. ISBN 0-915520-28-1

External links[link]

Biography[link]

• Brief academic biography at the homepage of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs
• Agehananda Bharati, 1923-1991 by Shauna Arth, 2003, the Anthropology Biography Web

Bibliography and book review[link]

• Selected Publications of Prof. Agehananda Bharati at the homepage of the Maxwell School of Syracuse University
• Review of The Light at the Center by Brad Darrach, Time Magazine September 13, 1976

Articles available online[link]

• Fictitious Tibet: The Origin and Persistence of Rampaism, an article published in Tibet Society Bulletin (Bloomington, Ind.), Vol. 7, 1974
• Excerpts from The Light at the Center on LSD and zero-experiences

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Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins in 1968
Born	(1901-08-30)August 30, 1901 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died	September 8, 1981(1981-09-08) (aged 80) New York City, New York, U.S.
Education	University of Minnesota
Occupation	Civil rights activist
Spouse	Aminda "Minnie" Badeau

Roy Wilkins (August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981) was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s.^[1][2] Wilkins' most notable role was in his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).^[2]

Early career[link]

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology in 1923. He worked as a journalist at The Minnesota Daily and became editor of St. Paul Appeal, an African-American newspaper. After he graduated he became the editor of the The Call (Kansas City). In 1929, he married social worker Aminda "Minnie" Badeau; the couple had no children.

Between 1931 and 1934, Wilkins was assistant NAACP secretary under Walter Francis White. When W. E. B. Du Bois left the organization in 1934, he replaced him as editor of The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP. From 1949–50 Wilkins chaired the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization, which comprised more than 100 local and national groups.

In 1950, Wilkins—along with A. Philip Randolph [1], founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Arnold Aronson [2], a leader of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council—founded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). LCCR has become the premier civil rights coalition, and has coordinated the national legislative campaign on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957.

Leading the NAACP[link]

Roy Wilkins as the Executive Secretary of the NAACP in 1963

In 1955, Roy Wilkins was chosen to be the executive secretary of the NAACP and in 1964 he became its executive director. He had an excellent reputation as an articulate spokesperson for the civil rights movement. One of his first actions was to provide support to civil rights activists in Mississippi who were being subject to a "credit squeeze" by members of the White Citizens Councils.

Wilkins backed a proposal suggested by Dr. T.R.M. Howard of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, who headed the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a leading civil rights organization in the state. Under the plan, black businesses and voluntary associations shifted their accounts to the black-owned Tri-State Bank of Memphis, Tennessee. By the end of 1955, about $280,000 had been deposited in Tri-State for this purpose. The money enabled Tri-State to extend loans to credit-worthy blacks who were denied loans by white banks.^[3] Wilkins participated in the March on Washington (August 1963) which he helped organize,^[2] the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965), and the March Against Fear (1966).

He believed in achieving reform by legislative means, testified before many Congressional hearings and conferred with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Wilkins strongly opposed militancy in the movement for civil rights as represented by the "black power" movement. He was a strong critic of racism in any form regardless of its creed, color or political motivation, and also espoused the principles of nonviolence.^[2]

Wilkins was also a member of Omega Psi Phi, a fraternity with a civil rights focus, and one of the intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternities established for African Americans.

Wilkins (right) with Sammy Davis, Jr. (left) and a reporter at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C

In 1967, Wilkins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Lyndon Johnson. During his tenure, the NAACP played a pivotal role in leading the nation into the Civil Rights movement and spearheaded the efforts that led to significant civil rights victories, including Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In 1968, Wilkins also served as chair of the U.S. delegation to the International Conference on Human Rights.

In 1976, Wilkins got into a dispute with undisclosed board members at the NAACP national convention in Memphis, Tennessee. He announced that he was postponing his planned retirement by one year because the package offered was insufficient for his needs. Board member Emmitt Douglas of Louisiana demanded that Wilkins disclose the offenders and not impugn the board as a whole. Wilkins merely said that the offenders had "vilified" his reputation and questioned his health and integrity.^[4]

In 1977, at the age of seventy-six, Wilkins retired from the NAACP and was succeeded by Benjamin Hooks. He was honored with the title Director Emeritus of the NAACP in the same year.^[2] Roy Wilkins died on September 8, 1981 in New York City of heart problems related to a pacemaker implanted on him in 1979 due to his irregular heartbeat.^[2] In 1982, his autobiography Standing Fast: The Autobiography of Roy Wilkins was published posthumously.

Views[link]

Wilkins was a staunch liberal and proponent of American values during the Cold War, and denounced suspected and actual communists within the civil rights movement. He has been criticized by some, on the left of the civil rights movement, such as Daisy Bates, Paul Robeson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Robert F. Williams, and Fred Shuttlesworth, for his cautious approach, his suspicion of grassroots organizations, and his conciliatory attitude towards white anticommunism.

Paul Robeson "Lost Shepherd"[link]

In 1951, J. Edgar Hoover and the state department, in collusion with the NAACP and Wilkins (then editor of The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP), arranged for a ghost-written leaflet to be printed and distributed in Africa.^[5]The purpose of the leaflet was to spread negative press and views about the Black political radical and entertainer Paul Robeson throughout Africa. Roger P. Ross a State Department public affairs officer working in Africa, issued three pages of detailed guidelines including the following instructions^[6]:

"USIE in the Gold Coast, and I suspect everywhere else in Africa, badly needs a through-going, sympathetic and regretful but straight talking treatment of the whole Robeson episode...there's no way the Communists score on us more easily and more effectively out here, than on the US. Negro problem in general, and on the Robeson case in particular. And, answering the latter, we go a long way toward answering the former.^[5][7]"

The finished article published by the NAACP was called Paul Robeson: Lost Shepherd,^[8] penned under the false name of "Robert Alan", whom the NAACP claimed was a "well known New York journalist." Another article by Roy Wilkins, called "Stalin's Greatest Defeat", denounced Robeson as well as the Communist Party of the USA in terms consistent with the FBI's information.^[5][6]:

At the time of Robeson's widely misquoted^[9] declaration at The Paris Peace Conference in 1949, that African Americans would not support the United States in a war with the Soviet Union because of their continued lynchings and second-class citizen status under law following World War II,^[10] Roy Wilkins stated that regardless of the number of lynchings that were occurring or would occur, Black America would always serve in the armed forces.^[11] Wilkins also threatened to cancel a charter of an NAACP youth group in 1952 if they did not cancel their planned Robeson concert.

Legacy[link]

Gil Scott-Heron mentioned Wilkins in his most famous spoken word song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" with this lyric: "There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy Wilkins strolling through Watts in a red, black and green liberation jumpsuit that he has been saving for just the proper occasion."

During his later life Wilkins was frequently referred to as the 'Senior Statesman' of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.^[2]

The Roy Wilkins Center for Human Relations and Social Justice was established at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs in 1992.

In 2002, Molefi Kete Asante listed Roy Wilkins on his list of the 100 Greatest African Americans.^[12]

See also[link]

• American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)
• African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
• Roger Wilkins, nephew of Roy, also a prominent Civil Rights activist
• Roy Wilkins Auditorium, an arena in Saint Paul, Minnesota
• Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement
• Thurgood Marshall, Wilkins colleague at the NAACP and U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Arvarh E. Strickland. "Wilkins, Roy"; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Roy Wilkins

• The Roy Wilkins Memorial in St. Paul, Minnesota: a virtual tour.
• The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
• Oral History Interview with Roy Wilkins, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
• The short film "Roy Wilkins: The Right to Dignity" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]