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DAILY
CLASS NOTES
Political Science & International Relations

M N Roy (Part-3)
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M N Roy (Part-3)
Humanist Critique of Marxism

 According to Roy, Marx’s theory of class struggle has subordinated individual

consciousness. Roy argued that various classes of society can live in cooperation and
Marx ignored the significance of the Middle class. It is in the middle class which
produces revolutionaries. Lenin did recognise this fact but failed to recognise the
middle class as a class. Thus, Roy denounced the theory of class struggle.

 As a radical humanist, he thought that revolution was to be brought not through

struggle or armed violence, but through proper education.

 He also denounced the theory of dictatorship of the proletariat as dictatorship of

proletariat become dictatorship on proletariat.

 In the context of the religion, Roy said that Marx himself criticised the religion as
opiate of masses but in due course of time, Marxism itself became a religion, „Das
Capital‟ as its bible and „Marx‟ as its prophet.

 M. N. Roy is criticised as Indian Bernstein as there is nothing new in Roy’s criticism

of Marxism. Most of the criticisms of Marx were already formulated by German
philosopher Eduard Bernstein.

Origin of Radical Humanism

 Scientific or Radical Humanism traces its origin to renaissance which focussed upon:

 Spirit of Inquiry

 Rationality

 Logic

 An Individual was considered as a primary unit of society.

 Scientific belief was given primacy over superstition.

 Radical Humanism rejected Marxism. Radical Humanism is also known as New

Humanism because it is different from Liberalism and Vedantic philosophy.
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 Radical Humanism is also known as scientific integral Humanism since M N Roy

believed in scientific temperament and wanted to change society through scientific
tools.

 Radical Humanism as described by M N Roy is a philosophy of freedom. Radical

humanism grew out of dissatisfaction with existing major philosophies.

 Radical Humanism aims to establish sovereignty of individuals. It is a philosophy of

humans. It aims to liberate man from the chains of nation or class. From the radical
humanist perspective, neither a liberal democracy nor a communist model can
achieve freedom for individuals.

 Philosophy of Radical Humanism argues the following:

 Parliamentary democracy is inadequate because it does not give the opportunity

to the masses for direct participation in governance. Hence, there is no real
freedom until there is radical democracy.

 Fascism needs to be rejected because it subsumes man under the collective ego of
nations.

 Communism is also not liberating because it subsumes man under the collective
ego of class.

 Hence, we need a philosophy which gives real importance to man as an individual

and which aims to achieve freedom of man.

Freedom of Man Means What?

 Real freedom means freedom from all sorts of fears, this includes freedom from
religion. According to M N Roy, freedom does not lie in choosing religion, rather
freedom lies in man’s capacity to reject religion.

 Radical Humanism of M N Roy aims to liberate man even from supernatural fears.

How would Man be able to achieve this Freedom?

 According to M N Roy, freedom will come with the promotion of scientific

rationality. He looked at science as a liberating force. He believed that there should
be promotion of scientific education. Hence, believed that intellectual revolution has
to proceed over political or economic revolution.
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 Philosophy of Radical Humanism is based upon three things:

M N Roy‟s Radical Humanism is also called as New Humanism

 Meaning of Humanism: Humanism is a philosophy that gives primacy to human

beings. This philosophy emerged during the period of renaissance, but M N Roy‟s
philosophy is called Radical Humanism or New Humanism. It provides a radical
interpretation of human beings. It treats human beings in a radical sense. It means
human being is treated as an individual or a human being and not as a member of
caste, class, religion, nationality, etc.

Comparison between Gandhi and M N Roy

Gandhi Roy

 He was successful.  He was a failure in promoting his

philosophy.
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 Gave central principle to religion in his  He did not give central position
philosophy. to religion in his philosophy;
rather he focussed upon matter,
that is, this worldly thing.

 Gandhi was greatly influenced by Indian  M N Roy was greatly influenced

philosophy and Epics- He was influenced by by Western philosophy.
the teaching of Bhagwat Gita, Lord Krishna
and Lord Buddha as well as Quran.

 Gandhi did not advocate changes in the  He changed existing ideas and
existing ideas but only focussed on the gave a radical interpretation of
refinement of techniques like Ahimsa. the idea of human beings.

Concluding Remarks

 It can be said that Roy has been considered as the most influential political thinker
of modern Indian political thought. His eminent work “Reason, Romanticism and
Revolution” is a noteworthy contribution to the history of western thought. He
began his theoretical chase as a Marxist, but gradually restated all the propositions
of Marx. He gave a moral reaffirmation of Marxism and developed radical
humanism. He can be classified as a utopian or romantic thinker. But still humanistic
and moralistic in his thinking. He was an ethical revisionist in the history of socialist
thought.

 Note: Roy made a very serious observation about India’s polity. He remarked that
the Indian traditions of leadership lend themselves to authoritarianism. The leader is
considered infallible. The presence of a charismatic leadership indicates the fascist
tendency in Indian politics. One may agree with Roy that India lacks a democratic
tradition and existence of a peculiar social structure and the tendency to hero
worship makes for authoritarian tradition. His warning about the Fascist danger in
Indian politics has proved to be true time and again.
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Questions Asked

1. Comment on the Marxist and Radical Humanist phases of M. N. Roy’s thoughts.

(2012)

2. Comment on Radical Humanism. (2009)

3. Analyse M. N. Roy’s ideational journey from Marxism to Radical Humanism. (2002)

4. What are the major components of Modern Indian Political Thought? Examine them
with reference to Gandhi and M. N. Roy. (2001)

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