Communist Party of India turned eighty eight in October. The formation of the Communist Party of India was in Tashkent on the 17th of October 1920 with 7 members and M.N.Roy was the first General Secretary of it. However, our mainstream communist leaders are sceptic about the roll of M.N.Roy since he was in the black book of Stalin in his later days. The main fault they found in him was that he was a communist who went beyond Communism (Marxism), which was quite unthinkable for them. Nevertheless, after half a century of his death (in1954 January), we can now reassess what he prophesied then.
Roy was an international figure in politics having contacts with Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Borodin, Carranza etc. He was the key tool in the formation of Mexican Communist Party – the first communist party formed outside Russia and he was the first General Secretary of it – a wonderful position for a Bengali of British India. He was also the founder General Secretary of the Communist Party of India. His contributions as the executive member of the Communist International were remarkable. He was an active member of Comintern until Stalin blacklisted him. But he moved on.
On coming to India, Roy realized that the National Revolution in India will take place only after independence and so he asked the communist workers and people to rally behind the Congress – which in his view was a liberal social democratic party comprised of feudal proprietors, bourgeois and labourers. This theory was in tune with that put forward by Lenin in the first Comintern but Stalin opposed it. Like this, there were many differences of opinions between him and Stalin and finally Stalin branded Roy as a renegade. Thereafter the mainstream Indian communists feared to have contact with him. After reaching India Roy asked the people to strengthen the congress but the congress leaders were suspicious about him since he was a communist.
The clear proof of his mettle was found during the Second World War. On the onset of the war, he had immediately realized the threat to humanity from the Nazis and he asked the people to stand behind the British to fight against fascism. This went against the prevalent sentiment amongst the common Indian men and the leaders of the Congress who were in blind opposition to British. They were eager to go with Quit India movement at that juncture. The Communists took up his call for anti-fascist movement only after the Nazi’s attack on Russia. He had predicted that if Germany and the axis powers 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 only in a free world. Luckily, the British and the allies won and India along with many other colonies got the freedom.
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 separate Muslim state, for which India still bleeds. Within these dissimilarities, there were many similarities between Gandhiyan thought and 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. He might have been strongly influenced by the thoughts of Bukharin (who had been killed by Stalin) and Kotsky.
Time revealed that Roy was right. The need of the hour is that the communists, socialists and all the anti-fascist secular organisations work together to save our democracy from peril and it will be the best tribute that Indians can offer to Roy – the greatest political philosopher of our time.
Published in ‘THE RADICAL HUMANIST’ (February 2006).
