Manabendra Nath Roy (formerly known as Narendra Nath Bhattacharya) was born on March 21, 1887, and passed away on January 25, 1954. He is one of the most path – breaking revolutionary figures of the 20th century whose impact is often overlooked.
Among his accomplishments are the founding of the Communist Party of Mexico (it was the first communist party outside Russia) and the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group).
He rose to the top of the Communist international (‘Comintern’), debating the colonial question with Vladimir Lenin.
Disillusioned with Stalinism, he later returned to India, where he pioneered the philosophy of Radical Humanism.
Early Life and Revolutionary Beginnings in India (1887–1915)
Narendra Nath Bhattacharya was born in a Brahmin family in the village of Arbelia, which is situated in the 24 Parganas district of Bengal. He was a school headmaster.
He joined revolutionary underground as a teenager. During the Swadeshi movement against the Bengal partition (1905–07). Later he joined the Jugantar Group, which advocated a more militant form of revolution.
Roy participated in many daring acts including an attempt to smuggle arms and make bombs. He was mandated to secure German arms for an uprising in India in 1915 in what was known as the Hindu German conspiracy during the First World War. The “fifteen years fugitive of British India in disguise began the fifteen years odyssey which changed Roy from a Bengali militant to a world communist leader.
Exile, Transformation, and the Founding of the Communist Party of Mexico (1916–1919)
Roy first reached the United States in 1916 via Japan and China, where he adopted the name Manabendra Nath Roy to evade British agents. Facing arrest in New York, he fled to Mexico in 1917 with his American wife, Evelyn Trent.
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