January 25 happens to be the death anniversary of a man who lived many of his life's years in the Doon valley which won him with its charm and where his "Humanist Home" still stands. The man was MN Roy and this home is a small monument of memories, a house that once belonged to this great man’s glorious and fascinating days.
Renowned philosopher and revolutionary Manbendra Nath Roy, known popularly as MN Roy, lived here for sixteen years from 1938 onwards. He died here on January 25, 1954, sixty one years ago. In the early years of the twentieth century, India’s indomitable spirit of revolt found a befitting expression in MN Roy. His revolutionary activities at home, the mysterious flight across the Eastern countries and to the American continent and his exploits on the foreign soil are events which made Roy a legendary figure for patriotic Indian youth
Born as Narendranath Bhattacharya on March 21, 1887 in a village in West Bengal, he was involved from a young age in underground revolutionary activity under the leadership of Jatin Mukherjee. In 1915, Roy went to Java in search of arms. He then went from country to country to secure German arms. He reached San Francisco in 1916 where, along with some other Indians, he was charged in a conspiracy case. It was here that he changed his name to Manabendra Nath Roy.
After founding in Mexico, the first Communist Party outside erstwhile Soviet Union, Roy went to Russia at the invitation of lenin and was elected a member of the presidium of the Communist International during the 1920s. He went to China in 1927 as the special representative of the Communist International. Roy who had returned to India, incognito, in 1930 ,was arrested by British police and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. After he was released from Dehradun prison in November 1936, Roy was then invited by Jawaharlal Nehru to Allahabad. He then went to Bombay where he began taking interest in the Indian National Congress.
It was in 1938 that Roy came to Doon valley again when he was advised six weeks of rest in a quiet place. The house, on Mohini Road was taken up only for six weeks but the beauty of the Doon valley worked its magic and the weeks turned into sixteen long years. Roy stayed on here till he died on January 25, 1954. His wife, Ellen,a German lady, stayed on till 1960 when she was murdered.
SN Puri ,Roy’s close associate and friend had been staying in the “Humanist Home” for quite a few years after Roy and his wife died. Some years ago, Puri passed away. After the end of the war Roy began to express differences with Marxism and Communism. He evolved the philosophy of humanism and issued a manifesto on “new humanism” .According to this thought ,the quest for freedom and search for truth constitute the basic urge of human progress.
The basic inspiration and consuming passion of Roy’s life was human freedom and he applied his great intellectual powers in the service of the ideal of freedom. When Roy realised in 1948 that human freedom could never be achieved through political parties, he dissolved the radical Democratic Party which he and his friends had formed in 1940. When I had met Puri in 1993 at Humanist Home , he had recalled that long before the present disillusionment with Communism ,Roy sensed its shortcomings and this led him to give up Communism and evolve a philosophy which tried to overcome its weaknesses.
Roy’s former residence is known as “Humanist Home” and is recommended by the members of the Indian Radical Humanist Association as a place for all humanists to visit. Doon valley is indeed proud to have been the beautiful home to such a man. A man who was far ahead of his times and whose revolutionary urge was not solely directed towards the liberation of the motherland but was ultimately the urge for individual human freedom.