M.N. Roy, the lonely lion

Roy, Manabendra Nath (1887-1954) communist leader and a revolutionary. Manabendra Nath Roy's father Dinabandhu Bhattacharjee was a Sanskrit teacher in a minor English school in Arbelia village of 24 Parganas of West Bengal. Born on 21 March 1887, his early name was Narendra Nath Bhattacharjee and was known in this name till 1916. Though he adopted different names such as C Martin, Hari Sing, Mr White, D Garcia, Dr Mahmood, Mr Banerjee etc at different times in conducting revolutionary activities, he was known as Manabendra Nath Roy (MN Roy), the name he adopted at San Francisco to evade arrest.

Naren had his early schooling at Arbelia. The family shifted to Kodalia in 1898. He studied in Harinavi Anglo-Sanskrit School until 1905. Keen in social service, he organised a volunteer group to nurse the sick, particularly those suffering from epidemics and famines. He was inspired by the writings of bankimchandra chattopadhyay and swami viveknanda. At the wake of the partition of bengal he came in contact with the militant nationalists. In 1905 Naren and some of his friends were rusticated from the school for attending a meeting addressed by surendranath banerjea and joining the procession, in violation of the order of the Headmaster. Later on he was introduced to the anushilan samiti of aurobindo ghosh.

Naren passed the Entrance Examination from the newly started National University (started by Aurobindo) and then he studied Engineering and Chemistry in the Bengal Technical Institute. He was actually a self-taught person. At this time, with his underground group, he experimented in bomb making and practised shooting in the Sundarbans. The group collected money by robbery for revolutionary purposes.

For sometime he worked with Bagha Jatin (Jatindra Nath Mukhopadhyay) in the Jugantar of the Anushilan Samiti. Naren and his group were involved in underground activities in Howrah-Sibpur area and were arrested in 1910 to face the 'Howrah-Sibpur Conspiracy Case, 1910-11'. During the trial period that lasted for more than a year, Jatin and Naren, in confinement, planned to arrange armed insurrection all over India. On release, Naren travelled in the garb of a sanyasi until 1914. The revolutionary organisations were extended to Far East, West America, and Germany where Indian revolutionary committees were formed...

In 1948, he abolished Radical Democratic Party and founded Radical Humanist Association. He founded Indian Renaissance Institute and edited the quarterly journal The Humanist Way which was originally named as The Marxian Way. He wrote another significant book titled Reason, Romanticism and Revolution. He attempted to write his memoirs that he could not complete.

Roy succumbed to a severe attack of coronary thrombosis at midnight of 24-25 January 1954 in Dehradun. He married Ellen Gottsechalk in 1937 after his first wife Evelyn had left him in 1925. He had no children. The Amrita Bazaar Patrika depicted him as the 'lonely lion who roamed about the world'. [T Hossain] [Chief Editor's Preface] [Home] Index:[A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z ]