Assignment On

Radical Humanism of MN Roy

Course code :- 121

Course Name:- Oriental Political Thought
Date of submission :- 1​4-December -2020

Submitted to:-
Dr. S.M. Hasan Zakirul Islam
Assistant Professor
Political Studies. SUST

Submitted by:-
Md Fahim Ahmed
Regi No- 2019235086
Dept of. Political Studies. SUST.

Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Sylhet

Biography of MN Roy

Narendra Nath Bhattacharya (later M.N. Roy) was born on 21 March 1887 in Arbelia, near
Calcutta in British India to a family of hereditary priests. Bhattacharya was schooled in
Arbelia and at the Harinavi Anglo-Sanskrit School in Kodalia. For higher studies, he enrolled
at the National College and
subsequently at the Bengal Technical Institute. As a school boy, Bhattacharya was exposed
to the writings of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Swami Vivekananda, and Bankim Chandra
Chattopadhyay. Their views
on nationalism, Indian culture, Hinduism and social reform had a profound impact on him.
The teachings of spiritual leaders and ascetics deeply influenced Bhattacharya. He was
introduced to Sivnarain Swami, a Hindu monk, in the year 1901. Believed to be a fugitive of
the revolt of 1857, Swami was a determined advocate of social reform in Hindu society
including the removal of caste barriers. He tutored Bhattacharya in Yoga and spirituality.
However, Bhattacharya was not ready to become a sanyasi just yet. The nationalist
movement had started to gain momentum and in 1905, the British Viceroy, Lord Curzon,
unveiled his plan to partition Bengal. Bhattacharya, a high school student
at the time, began actively participating in demonstrations and protests against the plan.
Soon enough, he

concluded that demonstrations weren’t enough and the use of force was necessary to attain
Swaraj (self-government). His political comrade and cousin, Harikumar Chakravarty wrote,
“We had decided our course. Vivekananda’s path was our path. Our God was our country.”6
Both Bhattacharya and Harikumar joined the Anushilan Samiti, a major center for
revolutionaries in Bengal and soon after they were sent to the Ghedapahar hills to be trained
in the use of firearms. They conducted several operations to secure funds for the
revolutionary underground.7 In April 1908, an Indian revolutionary, Khudiram
Bose, tried to kill a British magistrate in Muzaffarpur. He was arrested and hanged. In
retaliation, Bhattacharya shot dead the police officer responsible for arresting Bose. “It was
from this time that Bhattacharya rose in the hierarchy of leadership. With his untiring energy,
he contacted different leaders and groups to forge coordination and was preparing for
guerilla warfare to drive the British out of this country.

Introduction

Manabendra Nath Roy, the philosopher and socialist, underwent through three distinct
stages, during the first ever stage, he was a national revolutionary embarked in bringing
weapons and money illegally to launch a revolutionary demonstration in Bengal. During the
second stage, he had close contact with Marxism and an active personnel in communist
movement. In the third and final stage, he made his appearance as a radicalized humanist,
giving up Marxism. As a man of intelligence, MN Roy had a habit of nurturing newer notions.
He acceded with Marxism in 1919 when he was in Mexico, but he did not remain a Marxist.

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MN Roy's steps towards Radical Humanism

In 1928, Roy further proceeded forward and had an abject difference with the values of
marxism and Communist International ; In which he was an active personnel since 1918,
and he arrived in India soon after he parted his ways with the communist International. Since
then he enhanced a new kind of social philosophy widely known as Radical Humanism.
Various thinkers of the calibre of Marx, Hobbes, Hegel, and Lenin etc. Roy strived to
converge all the reasonable ideas of these thinkers mentioned above, those thinkers'
thoughts were different in nature and at the same time were conflicting as well. In one
philosophical system, In 1940 Roy floated away from Marxism en route to Radical
Humanism.

Humanism -the concept -the term 'Humanism' has its root deep in the Latin language, the
Latin word 'Humanus' referring to a bunch of thoughts surrounding the day to day affairs of
human beings. There are a handful of schools such as French and German Schools in
particular , which have redounded much to the improvement of the term of Humanism.
Anyway. All of them have a common belief in between themselves that they at the start of
their philosophical discussion puts immense stress and value on the discussions
surrounding man first up. The humanists reaffirm the fact'`that man by nature is positive and
able to make unthinkable strides to achieving perfection.

MN Roy deemed himself to be a radical and not an ingrained in nature, this means he does
not have any gut feeling in negating the things on flow for long to accept the things well
applicable in the on going era. But to everyone's surprise, he later left the thought of Radical
Humanism and accepted a newer one in lieu of the former which is known as the
coordinated scientific Humanism or New Humanism. In August 1947 he evolved a
manuscript, in which he expounded his political opinions and backed up those views saying
these he has produced based on reason and morality rather than relying on any irrational
inferences. Roy Said, " Most revolutionary political practice be guided by the Jesuitic dictum
the end substantiates the approaches. The decisive value of revolution is its morality that
draws attention of most of the people, it appeals for justice, rationally the answer to the

MN Roy has maintained, history should not be taken as the record of successively
happening incidents, It keeps the detailed history of man's continuous attempts for
independence preserved in itself. In the past man consigned himself wholeheartedly to the
influences of nature or to a dogmatic faith either, that came to no use for his exhumation.
Man finding himself drowned in dejection for the constantly growing influence of nature over
himself he sought for help from God who is thought to be possessing supernatural power to
rescue him, but getting no help against the ensuing influence of natural forces from God he

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goes onto thinking that there is no God, if there is one he might be subordinate to anything
else or not have the ability to deal with all these.

The struggle spanning several hundred years of hard striving man finally succeeded in
throwing away the delusion he has about God. The Renaissance was literally a kind of
rebellion against the authoritarianism of religion, in Europe marked the casting off of the
religious authority. This set people of Europe free from the shackles of the superstitious
control ascribed by the theology of religion, this helped people march towards something
new afterwards what they achieved after that long march we call them now 'modern
civilisation.

And in this situation Roy felt the need of a new kind of philosophy to introduce in the age of
man it was bound to be a initially human life oriented, a thought that is expected to unplug
the shackles the religious authoritarianism worn man,.a thought that will expounded natural
phenomena and experiences of human life without any reference to supernatural powers. A
philosophy with a social objective.

To Roy the expiration of humanist tradition with the appearance of modernizations through
mechanism was nothing but a tragic incident, leading the civilization towards ultimate
declination that was in existence before. Citing his own thought in this regard MN Roy
asserted, " the superseding of the humanist tradition is often thought to cause the civilization
to get demolished, modern civilization straighten itself standing on the head of the decaying
plane of civilization to weaken the movement that scampered away from the tradition of
humanism -subordinated man to the institutions (Roy 1952:269)

MN Roy's latest Humanism was universal in nature. It could muse not on the basis of the
nation or a class but merely in terms of man. Such an idea was thought to form the
basement of New Humanism, the way it is termed as 'new humanism' refers to the addition
of newer notions, upgradation and elaborated scientific knowledge and this flowed through
centuries of the modern civilization (Roy 1947:34).

His new humanism is attached to the quality underlying the commonwealth and fraternity of
freemen. He trusted the fact that the commonwealth of morality and spirituality emancipated
individuals is the basic necessity for the obtainment of a finer and more stable society. Such
a humanistic would be a spiritual community not controlled by the demarcation lines of the
national states, capitalist fascist or of any other sort.

As a radical humanist Roy adopted the individualistic approach. Man should

be regarded as a unit of morality rather than just a biological organ. Man is
ethical as what he thinks is based on reason. The world can be regarded as a
moral order conducted by the rules and principles implicit in itself. The

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individual must not be made subject to a nation or a class either, it works in
connection with man.

Roy refused to accept the nationalism of Congressmen and the theory of class
struggle of communism. He said, " Radicalism does not infer in the context of
nation or class either. It surrounds its all discussion centering man, it regards
liberty as the liberty of the individual, " (Roy 1947:36)

The individual oughtn't to cast off his introduction being inspired by the
collective arrogance of the nation or of the class, " The nation - state, in
practice, makes no greater compromise to the concept of personal liberty
than the class state of communism, and also socialism. The nationalist states
are yet to disavow nationalist collectivism," (Roy, 1952)

MN Roy got moved by the philosophy provided by Karl Marx right at the
beginning of his political career. Taking Karl Marx as a humanist and he was
deeply thoughtful about man he took up the philosophy of Karl Marx.
Humanism underlying the philosophy of Karl Marx drew the attention of MN
Roy. However, in 1940, as a radical humanist Roy desisted the Marxian
theory of class struggle, society could not live on unless there was some kind
of social consistency force and class struggle would not be the only appeared
matter",(Roy: 1947).

Situating a linkage with this theory of social harmoniousness Roy's stress on

the assignment of the middle class had a respectable status. While the
Marxian theory gives a special status to the working class. Roy stressed on
the unit of a person not on the entire class as a whole, yet when talking about
the class system of the society he bestowed a place of glory to the people
belonging to the middle class overlooking the proletariat, whom Roy regarded
as the most transgressing class of the society (Roy 1952)

Roy accredited the contribution of Marx for laying the ideas of a new social
philosophy, but he repealed the elucidation of Marxism by the concurrent
communist. Communists started as a movement for the deliverance of the
world's oppressed and trampled by the capitalist assimilation but of late is
committing grave misunderstanding among the improving forces of the

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modern world. According to Roy, "the extinction of private belongings , state
ownership of the means of production and envisaged economy do not on their
own willingness bring the long-run assimilation bring to an end nor does the
labour is lead to a just distribution of wealth," (Roy 1952:31)

To Roy, Any kind of monarchy does not benefit with the values of freedom .
To Roy, dictatorship of any kind was inconsistent with the ideal
lor freedorn. The claim of Communists that Proletarian dictatorship with
planned economy brings greatest good of the greatest number has been
tested and proved wrong.

M.N.Roy was critical of the Marxian concept of economic

determinism. Economic determinism cannot be the social philosophy,
which is required to lead civilized mankind out of the present crisis. Roy
The threatened catastrophe is to be avoided. We must have faith in human
ingenuity and the creativeness of the human mind, which are far from
being exhausted", (Roy, 1961: l5). He contended that the "new social order
must combine planning with freedom and should be led by the ideal of
collective welfare and progress".

Roy denounced the theories of class struggle and of the dictatorShip

of the Proletariat. He wanted to emphasiz:e the individual more than the
class, whether it be the working class or the middle class. Roy envisaged
the conflict of the present age as "between totalitarianism and democracy,
between the all-devouring-collective ego-nation or class and the individual
struggling for freedom (Roy t 94 7 : 3 3 )

Roy asserted that Marxian en"mphasis

on revolution and on the dictatorship of the Proletariat would lead to
totalitarianism. Revolutions could not bring about miracles. Roy did not
discard the record 'revolution' in total. As a Radical Humanist, Roy came
to believe that a revolution should be brought about not through class
struggle or barred violence but through education. Education not in the
conventional sense of reading and writing, but education in the cultural
sense, of a high degree of general human development. The method of

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education that Roi, emphasized for bringing about the Radical Humanist
revolution was not very different from the constitutional method that the
early moderates and liberals of India had advocated. Roy's revolution
involved no sudden change. His radical humanistic revolution was to be
achieved, not by violence or armed insurrection, but through the slow
process of education.
M.N.Roy. much critical of western democracy, especially
parliamentary democracy. Democracy, which means only counting of heads
when heads have no freedom to live in dignity is a mere deception.
Modern democracy wants to be in power and for this they want to keep

people backward. Under parliamentary system intelligence, integrity

wisdom, moral excellence do not count for much. Yet these are human
virtues.
of life can never be realized. Unless parliamentary democracy is based on
moral conscience of the majority in power it cannot realize the desired
end-greatest good of the great num

With no recognition of the

importance of individuals in social life and freedom parliamentary
democracy does not allow individuals to participate in the regular
of political iife.the-means-of
production the principle of equality is never realized. As a result of all
these defects under parliamentary democracy the government for the people
can hardly be a government of the people, because the majority in power
still rules by law and not by conscience. In order to make the common
man realize that he has a unique place as a sovereign, Roy viewed that a
foundation of organized local democracies must be laid. l
M.N.Roy was very much critical of Marxism on the following
grounds.

As a Radical Humanist Roy did not agree with the economic

interpretation of history. He was greatly influenced by Materialism and
the humanist theory that existence determines consciousness, but he yet
asserted that the theory of the economic interpretation of history did not

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The biological struggle for existence could not be equalized with the economic
trend to acquire money.Roy observed, "The reason of coming out of the
Marxian historiology was error of mixing physical propensity with the one of
economic",(Roy 1952:2017). Roy the trend of biological urge pushed the
economic urge forward to obtain a livelihood. In the same way with the things
used to achieve perfection in production pushed the improvement of the ways
of production themselves. Man before becoming a homo-economicus in
search of economic advantages, was directed by biological estimations.

Roy censured Marxian materialism as baseless and unscientific, He reasoned

that In Marx's dialectical materialism, there is a component of conflict.
Dialectics as a process of rationality or as an approach of looking into was
admissible to Roy. But logic was not merged with ontology of nature or the
section of reality. Dialectics, stating that the issue goes through the attempted
system of thesis. Antithesis and synthesis is necessarily a normative system,
on the other hand materialism is scientifically neutral, Roy therefore made it
clear that it was irrational to bring one equation dialectics in place that is
subjective in nature and materialism, which is subjective in character. Roy
reproofed Marxian Dialectics that the subject matter of a branch of
metaphysical looking into was being confused with the equipment of directing
that enquiry.

Roy was a believer in reason and an enemy of tradition and theology.

He criticized Marxismas theolo-eical. Since history is made by the operation
of the forces of production, one may conclude that there's very little that
can do. He becomes a slave to the forces of production. Roy rvas
critical of Marx on the ground that the laffer denied the autonomy and
sovereignty of the individual. To Marx, the human nature is malleable, it
lacks anything stable and permanent, and it is determined by economic
forces. In contrast, Roy argued. there is something stable and permanent.

There occurred significant discontinuity and change in M.N.Roy's

career" His political evolution passed from militant nationalism to
communism to New Humanism. In the end of his career Roy came to
believe more and more on individualism and liberalism. Unlike medieval
Indian saints and the contemporary social and political leaders, M.N.Roy
built up the humanist philosophy with flesh, blood and brain. Democracy
was the base, while rationalism its center, and sovereignty of man its apex.
Roy thus, gave a philosophy of life. Roy's inner being revolted against the
disappearance of individual freedom. In the history of modern Indian

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thought many eminent thinkers wrote on poverty in India and exploitation
of the weak by the strong. But Roy was the first man, who analysed
socio-economic forces upon Indian society from time to time. He asserted that
the task of the fighter for a new humanistic world
would be to make every individual conscious of his innate rationality and
to find his unity with others in a cosmopolitan commonwealth of free
men and women. He declared his faith that, .,Man did not appear on the
earth out of nowhere. He rose out of the background of the physical
the cord was never broken . Man, with his mind, intelligence, will remain an
integral part of the physical universe. The latter is a Cosmos-a law-governed
system. Therefore, man's being and becoming, his emotions, will, ideas
are also determined" man is essentially rational. This reason in man is an
echo of the harmony of the universe. Morality must be referred back to
man's innate rationality. The innate rationality of man is the only guarantee of
a harmonious order, which will also be a moral order, because morality is a
rational function. Therefore, the purpose of all social endeavour should
be to man increasingly conscious of his innate rationality
(Roy, 1947:34-47)
The philosophy of revolution evolved on the basis of the whole
stock of human heritage for political action and economic reconstruction
is known as New Humanism. It stress that neither capitalism nor
Parliamentary system can solve the problems of Socialism.

Conclusion

reject the notion of freedom.New Humanism is the only alternative,which

recognizes social organization and individual freedom. According to Roy
,. The basic idea of a new revolutionary social philosophy must be that the
individual is prior to society, and individual freedom must have priority
over social organization" (Roy, 1952:284)'M'N' Roy had been considered as
one of the most learned of Modern indian writers on politics and
philosophy.His philosophy of Radical humanism is considered as the most
important contribution, which could provide for a strong basis to
indian democracy

REFERENCES :

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*Appadorai,A:Indian Political Thinking ,Oxford University Press,

*Ghosh, S : Political ideas and Movement in lndia; Allied' New'

Delhi, 1975.

*Mahadevan,T.P.M:Contenrporary Indian Philosophy,Sterling'

NewDelhi, 1981.

*Mishra, Umesh: History of Indian philosophy, vol 1, Tirabhuki

Pub., Allahabad, 1957'

*Narvane, V.S : Modern Indian Thought, Asia Publishing House'

Bombay, 1954.

*Rada-hakrishnan, S. (Ed) : Contemporary Indian Philosophy' Allen.& Unwin,

London, 1958

*Raju, P.T.(Ed) : Idealist Thought in India' Allen and Unwin'

London, 1953' rhilosoPhers' Kitabistan'

*Ray, B.G. : Contemporary Indian Allahabad, 1947-

*Roy, M.N : Constitution of free India- A Draft' Radical Democratic Party,

Delhi, 1946"