Manabendra Nath Roy
মানবেন্দ্র নাথ রায়
The Indian Marxist who debated Lenin on colonial revolution
"You are so young! I expected a grey-bearded wise man from the East." — Lenin's first words to the 27-year-old Indian revolutionary upon meeting him at the Kremlin, 1920.
Bengali Marxist. He debated Lenin on the colonial question at the 1920 Comintern Congress and founded the Mexican Communist Party (the first outside Russia) as well as the CPI. Expelled from the Comintern, he served six years in British prisons before turning to Radical Humanism.
Career timeline
- 1917Co-founded the Socialist Party of Mexico, soon transformed into the Mexican Communist Party
- 1919Founded the Mexican Communist Party, the first communist party outside Russia
- 1920Presented supplementary theses on the colonial question at the 2nd Comintern Congress, debated Lenin
- 1920Founded the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group) in exile
- 1922–1929Member of the Comintern Executive Committee and Presidium; secretary of the Chinese Commission
- 1929Expelled from the Comintern for siding with Bukharin's Right Opposition
- 1931–1936Arrested by British colonial authorities, imprisoned for 6 years on conspiracy charges
- 1940–1948Founded the Radical Democratic Party; supported the anti-fascist war effort
- 1947Published the New Humanism manifesto, articulating his Radical Humanist philosophy