New Delhi: The legacy of MN Roy, a revolutionary freedom fighter and founding member of the Communist Party of India, is perhaps better remembered in Mexico than in his own country. And though he accumulated more detractors than admirers throughout his colourful life, he left an enduring mark across several continents.
The forgotten story of Roy caught the eye of French documentary filmmaker Vladimir Leon in 2000 when he came upon a photograph from the 1920 Comintern Congress in Moscow. There, amid giants like Vladimir Lenin and Maxim Gorky, stood a smiling Indian. This fading photo sparked a years-long odyssey, leading Leon from Mexico to Germany to India, culminating in his film Le Brahmane du Komintern (The Comintern Brahmin) in 2006.
“Roy was a part of incredible moments in history. Imagine a person from a rural family in colonial India being witness to three of the most revolutionary periods of the 20th century, Leon said in a Frontline interview.
Born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya on 21 March 1887 to a family of priests in Bengal, Roy’s early life was steeped in Sanskrit and ancient texts. But he was only in his early teens when the call of revolution drew him to an underground anti-colonial outfit called Anushilan Samiti. Later, at the age of 29, he changed his name to Manabendra Nath Roy to elude police.
Leon’s film traces Roy’s extraordinary journey, from a clandestine revolutionary in Bengal and a leader of India’s peasant movement, to an advocate for Indian independence in Europe, to the founder of the Communist Party of Mexico, and a significant delegate at the second Comintern Congress.
In all of this, the director found a common thread—Roy picked up enemies wherever he went and his contributions were relegated to a footnote in history. Roy was deemed a traitor by communists in Mexico because he did not address Mexican issues at the second Comintern Congress. In Russia, he was infamous for his disagreement with Leninism. In India, Roy was outspoken in criticising the Indian nationalist movement for not challenging the status quo of British power.
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Champions from Lenin to Einstein
By the time he was in his early 20s, Roy was on the wrong side of the law for his revolutionary activities, including being a suspect in the shooting death of the policeman who had arrested freedom fighter Khudiram Bose for trying to assassinate Calcutta’s chief presidency magistrate.
During World War I, Roy, aided by German contacts, made several trips to Indonesia to procure arms for an anti-British rebellion. In 1916, he landed in the United States. In writings in his selected works, Roy noted that his arrival in the US was met with sensational headlines, labelling him either a “Famous Brahmin Revolutionary” or a “Dangerous German Spy”. Before long, he was in trouble there too for his dealings with the Germans, causing him to flee across the border to Mexico.
There, the consummate communist internationalist played a vital role in establishing the Partido Comunista Mexicano in 1917—the first Communist party outside the Soviet Union.
In this period, Roy’s views on linking world peace to colonial liberation piqued Lenin’s interest, resulting in an invitation to Russia. He was honoured by both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin for his role as the founder of two communist parties, one in Mexico, the other in India.
However, Roy and Lenin diverged on which forces in colonial countries should receive support from Communists. Lenin favoured backing “bourgeois-democratic liberation” movements like the Indian National Congress, while Roy was a votary for assisting proletarian parties.
Returning to India in 1930, Roy faced imprisonment by the British on conspiracy charges in the Cawnpore (Kanpur) case of 1924. He found an unlikely supporter in the physicist Albert Einstein, who was impressed by Roy’s writings, notes Samaren Roy in his book MN Roy: A Political Biography. But although Einstein reportedly advocated for Roy by writing to the Round Table, it was to little avail. Roy was sentenced and ended up spending about six years in jail.
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The man who struck Gandhi’s ‘very roots’
In 1936, after his release from jail, Roy joined the Indian National Congress with the intention of “radicalising the party”. This brief foray, however, proved ill-fated, earning him the ire of the leftists while also disgruntling Congress leaders.
Roy’s only encounter with MK Gandhi took place on the eve of the Faizpur Session of the Congress in 1936. Despite a conversation that lasted for about 90 minutes, their views clashed on most issues, except for the shared goal of Indian independence. In the end, Gandhi is said to have advised Roy, “Since you are new to the organisation, I should say that you would serve it best by mute service”. Gandhi apparently even cautioned his followers to stay away from Roy, stating, “He strikes at my very roots”.
As a ‘radical humanist’, Roy’s beliefs diverged from both Marxism and Gandhism, and his views against notions of nation, capitalism, and the parliamentary system challenged prevailing narratives.
Roy’s later years in India were marked by engagement in social and cultural movements, including advocating for women’s rights and education and broader social justice.
He found solace in his final years teaching at Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, where his lectures became a platform for disseminating his evolving philosophical ideas and encouraging critical thinking. At the age of 67, Roy died of a heart attack ten minutes before midnight on 25 January 1954.
Despite his magnetic presence and lasting impact on those who knew him, Roy’s legacy in India remains complex. He is simultaneously viewed as a “communist renegade” who deviated from the conventional revolutionary path, and a freedom fighter who never truly aligned with the mainstream ideologies of the Indian independence movement.
His legacy is more visible today in Mexico than India. The only ‘monument’ of sorts to exist in his name is in Mexico City—a private club called M.N.Roy that operates out of a rundown house where the revolutionary once lived.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)