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Portrait of a Bengal Revolutionary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Leonard A. Gordon
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Extract

Narendranath Bhattacharya, later known as M. N. Roy, was in his youth a devoted revolutionary and lieutenant to a famous Bengali revolutionary leader, Jatin Mukherjee. A description of the revolutionary career of Roy is useful and appropriate for several reasons. First, Roy is one of the few revolutionary Bengalis about whom interesting data is available. Second, Roy followed a pattern oft-repeated among Bengali political workers during the twentieth century: from terrorist and insurrectionary activity to Communism and then open Congress work. Third, both the data collected about Roy and some of his own writings give graphic pictures of two important features of Bengali revolutionary politics: the dal or faction and the dādā or leader of such a group.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , February 1968 , pp. 197 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

1 I have used the forms “Jatin” and “Jatin-da” throughout in referring to Jatindranath Mukherjee since I am usually quoting from English language sources which spell the name in this way. A more correct transliteration from the Bengali would be “Yatīn” and “Yatīn-dā.”

2 Interviews with Lalit Bhattacharya in Calcutta during 1964. Mr. Bhattacharya and I checked the dates in a notebook kept by his father Dinabandhu Bhattacharya.

3 Roy, M. N., “The Dissolution of a Priestly Family,” in The Radical Humanist, XVIII, Nos. 6–7, Calcutta, February, 1954, 66–68, 72–74Google Scholar.

4 Roy, “The Dissolution of a Priestly Family,” p. 73.

5 Prof. Robert C. North interview with Hari Kumar Chakravarty in Kodalia, West Bengal on August 25, 1958.

6 North interview.

7 Cf. Farquhar, J. N., Modern Religious Movements in India (New York, 1915), pp. 29–73Google Scholar; Sastri, Sivanath, History of the Brahmo Samaj (Calcutta, 1911–12), 2 vols.Google Scholar; Pal, Bipinchandra, Memories of My Life and Times (Calcutta, 1932, 1951), V. I, chap. 15, V. II, chap. 11Google Scholar.

8 Cf. Farquhar, op. cit., 188–207; Rolland, Romain, The Life of Ramakrishna (Calcutta, 1960)Google Scholar; Isherwood, Christopher, Ramakrishna and His Disciples (New York, 1965)Google Scholar; Mukerji, Dhan Gopal, The Face of Silence (New York, 1926)Google Scholar.

9 Rolland, Romain, The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel (Almora, 1947), chaps. 7–10Google Scholar; Bose, Subhas Chandra, An Indian Pilgrim (Calcutta, 1965), pp. 34–37, 41, 45–51Google Scholar; Isherwood, op. cit., chaps. 17, 18, 21.

10 North interview.

11 For example, see Bose, An Indian Pilgrim, 34 ff. for instances of social service work by a young man growing up in Bengal in the early twentieth century.

12 North interview; Roy, “The Dissolution of a Priestly Family.”

13 Cf. Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra, Ānandamath, trans. Sree Aurobindo and Barindra Kumar Ghosh (Calcutta, n.d.)Google Scholar; Van Meter, Rachel Rebecca, “Bankim Chatterji and the Bengali Renaissance” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1964)Google Scholar; Clark, T. W., “The Role of Bankimcandra in the Development of Nationalism,” in Philips, C. H. (ed.), Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (London, 1961), pp. 429–45Google Scholar.

14 Purani, A. B., The Life of Sri Aurobindo (1872–1926) (Pondicherry, 1960), pp. 76–79Google Scholar; Sedition Committee, 1918, Report (Calcutta, 1918), pp. 23–24Google Scholar.

15 Chaudhuri, Nirad C., The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (New York, 1951), pp. 195 ff.; Pal, Memories, I, chap. 22Google Scholar.

16 Mukherjee, Haridas and Mukherjee, Uma, The Growth of Nationalism in India (1857–1905) (Calcutta, 1957), pp. 124–29Google Scholar.

17 Chirol, Valentine, Indian Unrest (London, 1910), p. 79Google Scholar; Sedition Committee, Report, chaps. 1–6; Pal, Memories, I, 247–48; Chaudhuri, Autobiography, pp. 238–41.

18 Interviews with Lalit Bhattacharya.

19 Ray, Sibnarayan (ed.), M. N. Roy Philosopher-Revolutionary (Calcutta, 1959), p. 65Google Scholar.

20 Government of India, Home Department, Political, Part A, Proceedings January 1917, Numbers 299–301. K.W. to—. Decision that no prima facie case exists for the extradition of Norendra Nath Bhattacharji alias Martin, at present in the U. S. A. [includes second statement of Fanindra Kumar Chakravarty alias William Arthur Payne alias Ananda Mohan (Simla, 1916)], paragraph 57.

21 Guha, Nalini Kisor, Bāhlāy Biplabbād (Calcutta, 1954), pp. 88–116Google Scholar.

22 Government of India, Home Department, Political Proceedings, August 1911, Numbers 23–36. Howrah-Sibpur Political dacoity gang case. Cited with the permission of the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs.

23 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 101–02.

24 Park, Richard L., “The Rise of Militant Nationalism in Bengal: A Regional Study of Indian Nationalism” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1951), p. 238Google Scholar; Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 101–02.

25 Home Department, 1917, paragraphs 4–5; Das, Ramyansu Sekhar, M. N. Roy, the Humanist Philosopher (Calcutta, 1956), p. 26Google Scholar; Halder, Gopal, “Revolutionary Terrorism,” in Gupta, Atulchandra (ed.), Studies in the Bengal Renaissance (Jadavpur, 1958), p. 241Google Scholar.

26 Home Department, 1911.

27 Home Department, 1911; Home Department, 1917, paragraph 8.

28 This was suggested to me in interviews with Surendra Mohan Ghosh in New Delhi, September, 1964 and with Dr. R. C. Majumdar in Calcutta on July 26, 1964.

29 Home Department, 1911.

30 Home Department, 1917, paragraph 3; Roy, M. N., “Jatin Mukherji,” Independent India, Vol. XIII, No. 8, February 27, 1949, 91Google Scholar.

31 Roy, “Jatin Mukherji,” p. 91.

32 Ibid., p. 91.

33 E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer (Oxford, 1940), chap. 4.

84 Carstairs, R., Human Nature in Rural India (London, 1895), pp. 268–71, 340Google Scholar; Nicholas, Ralph W., “Factions: A Comparative Analysis,” in Political Systems and the Distribution of Power (New York, 1965), pp. 21–59.Google Scholar

35 Sarma, Jyotirmoyee, “Formal and Informal Relations in the Hindu Joint Household of Bengal,” Man in India, Vol. 31, No. 2, April–June, 1951, 51–71Google Scholar.

36 SirWoodroffe, John (Arthur Avalon pseudonym), Principles of Tantra (Madras, 1960), p. 535Google Scholar.

37 Sedition Committee, Report, p. 94.

38 Guha, op. cit., pp. 89–91.

39 For example, see Aurobindo, Sri, The Doctrine of Passive Resistance (Pondicherry, 1952), second edition, pp. 29–30Google Scholar.

40 Guha, op. cit., pp. 94–95.

41 Interviews with Nirad C. Chaudhuri in Delhi, May and September, 1964.

42 Guha, op. cit., 88 ff.; Haider, op. cit., pp. 229–31.

43 Tagore, Rabindranath, “Path o Pātheya” and “Samasyā” in Rabīndra Racanābalī, V. 12 (Calcutta, 1964), 974–1004Google Scholar; Pal, Bipinchandra, Nationality and Empire (Calcutta, 1916), pp. 84–85, 100, 123Google Scholar; Eari of Ronaldshay, The Heart of Aryavarta (London, 1925), pp. 80–87Google Scholar.

44 Roy, “Jatin Mukherji,” p. 91.

45 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 46, 53, 62, 81, 93–99, 105, 114, 213–219.

46 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 93–99, 219–20; Haider, op. cit., pp. 242–43; Mukherjee, Uma, Two Great Indian Revolutionaries. Rash Behari Bose, and Jyotindra Nath Mukherjee (Calcutta, 1966), pp. 174–78, 213Google Scholar.

47 Sedition Committee, Report, Annexure 2, p. 226.

48 Census of India, 1921, Vol. V, Part II, Tables Bengal (Calcutta, 1923), 165–69.

49 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. III–18.

50 Home Department, 1917.

51 Ibid., paragraph 3.

52 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 66–67; Purani, op. cit., p. 72.

53 Guha, op. cit., p. 98; Chaudhuri, op. cit., pp. 238–41.

54 Sedition Committee, Report, p. 66.

55 Ibid., p. 103

56 Ibid., pp. 102–05; Mukherjee, Two Great Indian Revolutionaries, pp. 174–76, 213.

57 Home Department, 1917, Paragraph 13.

58 Ibid., Paragraph 15.

59 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 119–25.

60 Haider, op. cit., pp. 242–43.

61 Home Department, 1917, Paragraph 27.

62 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 6–8, 119–25; Mukherjee, Two Great Indian Revolutionaries, pp. 60–96.

63 Roy, M. N., M. N. Roy's Memoirs (New Delhi, 1964), Parts 3 and 4Google Scholar; Overstreet, Gene D. and Windmiller, Marshall, Communism in India (Berkeley, 1959), pp. 19–81Google Scholar.

64 Home Department, 1917, Paragraph II; Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 67–71.

65 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 119–25.

66 Home Department, 1917, paragraph 26; Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 67–71.

67 Guha, op. cit., pp 109–17.

68 Guha, ibid., p. 110.

69 Guha, ibid., p. 116; Mukherjee, Two Great Indian Revolutionaries pp. 181–82.

70 Guha, op. cit., p. 116.

71 Guha, ibid., p. 93, 116; Purani, op. cit., p. 77.

72 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 119–25; Home Department, 1917, paragraphs 27–49

73 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 121–22.

74 Home Department, 1917, paragraph 38.

75 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 122–25; Mukherjee, Two Great Indian Revolutionaries, pp. 205–12.

76 Home Department, 1917, paragraphs I, 50.

77 Roy, Memoirs, Part 1; Overstreet and Windmiller, op. cit., pp. 19–26; interview with Carleton Beals, Killingworth, Connecticut, June 1965.

78 Roy, M. N., La India. Su pasado, su presente y su porvenir (Mexico, 1918)Google Scholar and Roy, M. N., La Voz de la India (Mexico, n.d. 1917?)Google Scholar. The second title includes the title essay and “Carta Abierta a su Excelencia Woodrow Wilson … ” and “jPor qué los soldados indios luchan por Inglaterra?” I have translated these works with the assistance of Mrs. Regina Berman and Mrs. Rose Gordon.

79 Roy, Memoirs, pp. 59, 82, 164–65, 213–19.

80 Roy, ibid., p. 6.

81 Roy, ibid., pp. 35–36.

82 Roy, ibid., pp. 59, 82, 165, 213.

83 Interview with Carleton Beals.

84 Home Department, 1917, paragraph 11.

85 Overstreet and Windmiller, op. cit., p. 22.

86 Roy, Memoirs, p. 38.

87 Roy, La Voz, pp. 9, 16.

88 Roy, Ibid., p. 11.

89 Roy, ibid., p. 55.

90 Roy, ibid., pp. 56–57.

91 Roy, ibid., p. 67.

92 Haider, op. cit., p. 243.

93 Haider, ibid., p. 248. Rāy, Suprakāá, Bhārater Baiplabik. Sahgramer ithās (Calcutta, 1955), PP. 391–94Google Scholar.

94 Haider, op. cit., p. 256.

95 Home Department, 1917, paragraph 37.

96 Sedition Committee, Report, pp. 126–27, 131–35; Mukherjee, Two Great Indian Revolutionaries, pp. 100–26.