Roy, Manabendra Nath

▪ Indian politician

original name Narendranath Bhattacharya

born Feb. 22?, 1887, Arbelia, India

died Jan. 25, 1954, Dehra Dūn

      leader of India's Communists until independence in 1947.

      Roy's interest in social and political issues eventually led to an involvement with various Indian groups engaged in trying to overthrow British colonial rule by acts of terrorism. In 1915 he became involved in a plot by Bengal revolutionaries to smuggle arms into India. The plot failed, and Roy vainly searched for the needed arms among various nations of East and Southeast Asia. In 1916 he reached San Francisco, where he changed his name to Roy.

      Moving to Mexico, Roy helped found the Mexican Communist Party soon after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. In Moscow he made a favourable impression on Lenin and was put on the executive committee of the Communist International (Comintern). Breaking with the Comintern in 1929 over Joseph Stalin's policies, Roy tried to return secretly to India but was arrested by the British and imprisoned. He was released a few years later and joined the Indian National Congress. Giving higher immediate priority to the defeat of fascism than to Indian independence, Roy opposed the Congress in its reluctance to aid the British in World War II. After India gained independence in 1947, Roy abandoned communism and became a founder of radical humanism, a mixture of socialist and liberal humanitarian ideas.

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