MN Roy - Radical Humanism

M.N. Roy – Principles of Radical Humanism

M.N. Roy was a national revolutionary and a man devoted to the cause of Indian national freedom, though his approach was very different and his method of struggle quite untraditional. He was sufficiently under the influence of Communism and basically adhered to that philosophy though he differed from Marx in details. He developed his own philosophy which he called Radical Humanism and for which he wanted to have an independent nature and character. Basic principles of his philosophy were:-

Individual Freedom. According to M.N. Roy individual was an end in itself and every other organization in the society was simply means to an end. He pleaded that everything was below individual freedom which should not be subordinated to anything else. He was not ready to subordinate individual freedom even to religion or morality or to any other super-natural power.

His Ideas about nature of Man. According to M.N. Roy by nature man loves freedom. With regard to human nature he was rather close to Rousseau who said that man was born free and everywhere he was in chains. In his opinion man was governed by the same principle as physical sciences and in fact there was no basic difference between the two. He, however, distinguish between the two on the basis of rationalism.

His views about Democracy. According to M.N. Roy in its present form democracy did not grant either economic or social or political freedom. In fact, he came to the conclusion that the present impure democracy sacrified individual freedom for the sake of collective freedom. He also came to the conclusion that democracy required a fundamental changed both in nature and character.

His views about Materialism. M.N. Roy believed in the basic doctrine of historical materialism by Marx, but he differed from him in details. In his opinion there was no differences between organic and unorganic matter. He was of the opinion that all living bodies were formed out of certain chemical matters and their combination in resulted in in the creation of other matters. In his opinion mind was a characteristic of matter at a high stage of development. He thus tried to esblish a close relationship between an individual’s min and matter.

His views about history. According to M.N. Roy, human history was nothing else but a record of struggle for freedom. History was a witness that the people always fought either for their political, social or economic freedom and that at no stage did their struggle come to an end.

His views about obstacles on individual freedom. M.N. Roy very much loved individual freedom. He, however, felt that there were certain obstacles in the way of individual freedom. The greatest obstacle was the state which was trying to become an end in itself rather than retaining its essential character remaining means to an end.