RADICAL HUMANISM
M. N. ROY
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International Revolutionary Radical Humanist Activist-Philosopher
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A Presentaion by Vally, SJ
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I. Life
Manabendra Nath Roy (1887-1954) was a revolutionary. Born on 21 March 1887, his early name was Narendranath 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.
Roy joined the revolutionary underground movement for Indian national liberation at the age of 18. He was an associate of the legendary Indian revolutionary, Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin. He attempted, in 1915, an armed insurrection against the British, which was crushed. Seeking German arms for Indian revolutionaries, Roy, toured in search of armed assistance for Indian revolution in Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Phillipines, and the USA. Roy played a leading role in revolutionary movements in Mexico, where he made friends with Mexican and American political activists and intellectuals, including the then Mexican president, Venustiano Carranza. Roy later became the General Secretary of Socialist Party of Mexico. In March 1919, he also became close to Michael Borodin, Comintern's (Communist International) emissary to Mexico and founded the Communist Party of Mexico.
In May 1920, he went to Moscow at the invitation of Lenin to attend the second congress of Comintern. There he presented a Supplementary Thesis to Lenin's Theses on The National and Colonial Question. Though initially created a stir, his supplemntary thesis was accepted along with the main thesis presented by Lenin.
MN Roy came to India in 1930 as Dr Mahmud. He was captured in July 1931. On his release in November 1936, Roy joined the indian national congress and soon resigned from it due to differences of openion in war policy. He supported the Allied Powers in World War II because he considered declining imperialism a lesser evil to Fascism, which to him was a menace to mankind. In 1948, he launched the Radical Humanist Movement in India, which in 1952 joined with other humanist groups in Europe and America to found the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
Like Marx he was both an activist and a philosopher; in fact Lenin called him "the Oriental Marx". A revolutionary at heart, and fired by the ideal of Human Freedom, Roy finally became a philosopher of the modern renaissance and that of the humanist revolution.
M.N. Roy put his beliefs this way: "When a man really wants freedom and to live in a democratic society he may not be able to free the whole world . . . but he can to a large extent at least free himself by behaving as a rational and moral being, and if he can do this, others around him can do the same, and these again will spread freedom by their example."
Roy's approach is summarised by Justice Tarkunde: "A humanist revolution, which is designed to achieve the ideal of comprehensive democracy, must necessarily partake of the character of the ideal. A humanist revolution is also a path to be traversed rather than a goal to be achieved. A Radical Humanist who traverses the way to a humanist revolution is, therefore, succeeding all the time".
In his biography, Sibnarayan Ray writes : "From early life his sharp intellect was matched by a strong will and extra-ordinary self-confidence. It would seem that in his long political career there were only two persons and a half who, in his estimate, qualified to be his mentors. The first was Jatin Mukherji (or Bagha Jatin) from his revolutionary nationalist period; the second was Lenin (...) The half was Josef Stalin..."
II. Main Ideas of M N Roy
A. Certain Pre-suppositions
1. Philosophy
According to Roy, the Function of philosophy is to explain existence as a whole. To explain you need knowledge. This knowledge is gathered from different branches of science. Philosophy must coordinate all scientific knowledge into a comprehensive theory of nature and life. Science describes, philosophy explains therefore philosophy is science of sciences.
2. Cosmic Evolution
Life is an out come of the cosmic evolution. We can satisfactorily explain the present and future of man in the light of a clear understanding of entire cosmic scheme.
3. Science and Philosophy
The development of modern science has made man progressively acquainted with the laws of nature. The very Being of man brings him in contact with the physical environment around him, compels him to act and arouses in him the desire to know. The development of science is determined by the laws of human evolution.
4. Religion and Philosophy
In the past religion served a philosophical purpose. Faith in the supernatural was characteristic of a pathological stage of intellectual progress. As soon as conditions conducive to normal development were available to human intelligence, intelligent took off on its own.
5. Communism Denounced
Marx was so much preoccupied with the overthrowing of capitalism that he hardly wrote anything about the post-revolution political practices and economics of socialism. Thus the post-revolutionary Communism was torn apart by the contradictions between the theory and practice of communism. Communism did not give due respect to the individual freedom.
B. Roy’s Materialism
“ The basic principle of materialism can be stated in many ways: that the world, physical as well as biological, exists objectively, is self contained and self-explained; there is nothing beyond and outside it; it’s being and becoming are governed by laws inherent in itself; laws are neither mysterious nor metaphysical, nor merely conventional; they are coherent relations of events; consciousness with its manifestations and derivatives, is a property, is a property of that which, in a certain state of organization, distinguishes existence from non-existence.”According to Roy Materialism, stated with the help of scientific knowledge, is the only philosophy possible. Any other merges into religion or ends in solipsism.
1. The World is Real
Except thorough-going idealists, no modern philosopher has disputed the existence of the so-called external world; the doubt was of the possibility of knowing it.
2. Knowledge of the World
Knowing is an act of mind. Knowledge is not identical with thought. Thought is mind’s inherent property, whereas knowledge it acquires from outside.
Sensations are governed by the physical laws. Higher organisms possess the faculty not only of receiving impressions of the environment, but also of weaving them into a coherent mental picture of the physical reality they represent.
3. Materialism is Monistic
Descartes freed philosophy from theology, but placed it under the hegemony of the mind, which he conceived as an immaterial substance. That resulted in a problem: mind and matter could not be reconciled by speculative thought. With its dynamic conception of matter, the new physics overcame the last hurdle.
4. New Physics
The philosophical significance of new physics lies in the fact that it brings problems hitherto considered to be metaphysical, within the compass of physical research. The basic concepts such as space, time, matter, causality etc. are no longer subjects of speculative thought.
Space is being and time is becoming. While pure being is logically conceivable, becoming always involves being. This analysis leads directly to the picture of a four-dimensional continuum. Being is three dimensional. Becoming is four dimensional, because it embraces existence and change – space and time.
C. Dynamics of Ideas
Ideas play an autonomous role in social evolution. But ideas are neither sui generic nor of any metaphysical origin. They come from the human brain, which is a lump of a specific psycho-chemical combination, resulting from biological evolution. The dynamics of ideas and the dialectics of social development are Para-processes, both stimulated by man’s biological urge for freedom. They naturally influence each other. The Marxist conception of history fails when it dismisses ideologies as mere superstructures of economic relations, and tries to relate them directly with the material conditions of life. The logical development of ideas and the generation of new social forces take place simultaneously, together providing the motive force for history.
Analogy: Ideas are the driver, economic forces are the cart – and both are real. Both are autonomous – they influence each other – but do not determine each other.
D. A New Humanism
Disillusioned with both bourgeois democracy and communism, he devoted the last years of his life to the formulation of an alternative philosophy which he called Radical Humanism and of which he wrote a detailed exposition in Reason, Romanticism and Revolution.
“Humanism is a broad category of active ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities—particularly rationalism.” Wikipedia
1. The contemporary crisis
The whole of human existence is thrown into confusion. A few have become makers of the destiny of all. This will not be changed by replacing one group of mentors by another. Unless we can find a way by which man can regain faith in himself, there will be no freedom and no future for man.
2. Humanism explains human nature
The movement for a humanist revival, starting from the attempt to explain what human nature is, has been called a scientific humanism, or simply a new humanism. New humanism tries to go into the genesis of man. We can trace the origin of man through the process of natural evolution back to inorganic matter. The physical universe is a harmonious law-governed system. Because man grows out of it, the element of harmony and law-governness are also inherent in him.
3. True Revolution – attainment of individual freedom
The programme of the humanist revolution will be based on the principles of freedom, reason and social harmony. In this way, Radicalism gives to freedom a moral-intellectual as well as social content; and it also offers a comprehensive theory of social progress in which both the dialectics of economic determinism and dynamics of ideas find their due recognition; and it deduces from the same method and programme of social revolution in our time.
4. Emphasis on Human Freedom
According to Marxism, man is simply a part of the economic system. In this respect Roy said that in human life material and moral forces were more powerful than economic factors. This is why he laid emphasis on human freedom of desire and creativity and laid particular emphasis on collective morality and sense of value in place of the class morality of the Marxists.
5. Means are part of the end
Thus, for a rational society where rationality is important, means and ends shouldn’t be separated. The means to any solution should be rational and, as such, part of ends itself. Whatever the ends being sought — justice, equality, safety, for example — the means must also include justice, equality, and safety. If society attempts to achieve justice with injustice or equality with inequality, then it would be difficult to describe it as rational.
“For humanists, means and ends are not so differentiated. The means are also part of the end. We are not setting up a perfectionist ideal to be achieved perhaps two hundred years hence. We say that a good and rational society will be a society which is composed of good and rational human beings. And we say that every human being is potentially good, that is, moral.” – M.N. Roy6. Importance of Education for the Spread of Humanism
Education of the citizen is the condition for such a reorganization of society as will be conducive to common progress and prosperity without encroaching on the freedom of the individual.
Roy and Gandhi
Ideologically Roy was in different view with Gandhiji in politics. Gandhiji viewed that in India politics cannot be separated from religion. Actually, Gandhiji’s dream for the building up of a Ramarajya sowed the seed for the formation of a separate Muslim state, for which India still bleeds. Within these dissimilarities there were many similarities between the Gandhiyan thoughts and the Radical Humanism put forward by Roy, especially in the decentralization of political and economic power; the difference is that Roy was more rational and scientific. His perception and wide experience helped in the formation of a new and better ideology.
Roy and Second World War
On the onset of the war, he immediately realized the threat to humanity from the Nazis and he asked the people to stand behind the British to fight against fascism. This was quite indigestible for the common Indians and the leaders of the Congress who were in blind opposition to British. He predicted that if Germany and allies are victorious in the war it will be the end of democracy in the world and India would never be independent. According to him India will get her freedom in a free world only. Luckily, the British and the allies won and India along with many other colonies got their freedom.
III. Criticism
- Roy makes a hasty statement that religion is already discarded by intelligence and reason.
- Roy was anti-Hindu. He had a pathological dislike for the Hindus. This made him largely unpopular.
- Why has Humanism failed to appeal to the modern man and woman? It has failed because it does not give people a vital place in the universe. People care more about where we are going than whence we came, more about morality than reality, more about meaning than facts, more about "why?" than "how?", more about warm emotion than cold reason.
IV. Works by M N Roy
Ø India in Transition (1922)
Ø The Future of Indian Politics (1926)
Ø Revolution and Counter-revolution in China (1930)
Ø India and War
Ø Alphabet of Fascist Economy
Ø Draft Constitution of Free India
Ø People's Freedom
Ø Poverty or Plenty
Ø The Problems of Freedom
Ø INA and the August Revolution
Ø Jawaharlal Nehru: The Last Battle for Freedom
Ø The Scientific Politics
Ø New Orientation
Ø The Russian Revolution
Ø Beyond Marxism
Ø New Humanism
Ø Reason, Romanticism and Revolution
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books:
BHATTACHARJEE, G.P.: Evolution of Political Philosophy of M. N. Roy, Calcutta: The Minerva Associates, 1971
DAS, Sushanto: Dedication to Freedom: M. N. Roy – The Man and His Ideas, Delhi: Ajanta Publications
RAY, Sibnarayan: In Freedom's Quest: Life of M.N. Roy, Vol. III (Part-I), 2005
ROY, M.N.: Beyond Communism, Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1947
ROY, M.N.: New Humanism: A Manifesto, Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1947
ROY, M.N.: Science and Philosophy, Calcutta: Renaissance Publishers, 1947
Internet sources:
http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/R_0243.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._N._Roy
http://www.iheu.org/node/222
http://www.marxists.org/archive/roy/index.htm
