Selections from The Radical Humanist Volume - II 2006 to 2018 Selected, Compiled and Edited by Mahi Pal Singh, Editor, The Radical Humanist An Indian Renaissance Institute Publication Selections from THE RADICAL HUMANIST Published by : Satish Chandra Varma, Advocate Treasurer, IRI For and on Behalf of Indian Renaissance Institute A-1/103, Satyam apartments, Vasundhara Enclave, New Delhi- 110096. (M) 9811587576 Email ID: [email protected] © Indian Renaissance Institute. Free re-publication or reproduction of the contents of this book permitted with due acknowledgement to the publishers of this volume. E-Version Published on 6th April, 2019 Available at: www.lohiatoday.com This Volume is Dedicated to All Those Radical Humanists Who Have Contributed in Taking the Radical Humanist Movement Forward for Ensuring Individual Freedom, Democratic Rights and Dignity of Life To All in spite of all kinds of odds - Mahi Pal Singh Selections from THE RADICAL HUMANIST Foreword The Radical Humanist journal founded by Manabendranath Roy (M.N. Roy) has historical, revolutionary, renaissance background. After India achieved independence, M N Roy started the journal. But he had long experience of journalism and renaissance since World War I. Roy commenced his journalistic career in Mexico and contributed articles in Spanish and English along with his first wife Evelyn Trent. Then Roy was compelled to start two journals from Europe to communicate his ideas, and instructions to comrades. The Masses and International press information correspondence from European countries gave ideal and practical guidelines to Indian and world communists. Of course, his wife Evelyn ably managed to run the journals while Roy was busy touring in the international communist movement. With such rich background M N Roy arrived and started Independent India journal. But above all M N Roy‘s journal The Marxian Way helped the intellectuals in India and abroad. But soon Roy changed the journal into The Humanist Way which continued its theoretical and practical articles. There are not many in the world arena to compare with Roy in journalistic field. Great journals like MINERVA edited by Edward Shills from Chicago University stood as wonderful in deep study of issues and personalities. In India Romila Thaper, P. Lal, A.B Shah. Abu Sayeed Ayub, Amlan Datta organised journals and contributed to intellectual field. Some of them are again inspired by M N Roy. Now Skeptical Inquirer under the editorship of Kendrek Frazier and Free Inquiry edited by Tom Flynn in USA can be mentioned in the tradition of M N Roy. The Radical Humanist journal started by M N Roy was ably assisted by his intellectual wife Ellen. After them several eminent intellectuals continued the journal. Some of them: A.B Shah, Sib Narayan Ray, V M Tarkunde, V B Karnik, Sunil Bhattacharya, Justice Jahagirdar, G.D Parekh, Rekha Saraswat, and numerous others put all effort to sustain the renaissance trend. Persons like AGK (Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy, Malladi Ramamurthi, K.K. Sinha, A.K. Mukherjee, Maniben Kara, Jayanti Patel, Vinod Jain, N.D. Pancholi, Premnath Bazaz, Gauri Malik, Suyesh Malik, R M Pal, put in a lot of effort to sustain the journal from various angles. The Radical Humanist journal is part of continuous history. It is an uphill task to sustain its spirit. Yet innumerable writers are contributing articles to the journal continuously. At present Mr Mahi Pal Singh took the cudgels and is running the renaissance humanist uphill task. He is swimming against the current from several angles. One is to select the articles from The Radical Humanist. He could do it and is trying to bring out this volume after the first one. The selection is very encouraging to writers and readers. A day will come when the journal will find place in all the university libraries and research centres. I appreciate the sustained effort of Mr Mahi Pal in the selection of articles and writers. Such volumes will be very useful for research efforts of young scholars worldwide. 14 January 2019 Narisetti Innaiah (Dr.) (From USA) [ I ] Preface The Radical Humanist was started as a weekly in April 1949 under the editorship of its founder M.N. Roy. It was formerly named Independent India and continued from April 1937 to March 1949. April 1970 onwards The Radical Humanist has continued as a monthly journal. From its very inception it has remained devoted to the development of the Renaissance Movement; and for promotion of human rights, scientific temper, rational thinking and a humanist view of life. Started by M.N. Roy, a revolutionary freedom fighter, visionary, and intellectual giant assisted by his wife Ellen Roy who was an intellectual in her own right. But for her tireless spirit and high devotion Roy’s works would not have reached us; nor would The Radical Humanist have continued un-interrupted even after the demise of M.N. Roy on 25th of January 1954. Of course, in her efforts she got the helping hand of another intellectual giant, Prof. Sibnarayan Ray, who not only helped her in editing the journal but also put together and edited ‘Complete Works of M.N. Roy’ in several volumes. After Prof. Ray the responsibility was taken over by no less than the great exponent of civil liberties and democratic freedoms, the legendary Justice V.M. Tarkunde, who along with Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan formed The Citizens For Democracy and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties for protecting civil liberties, fighting authoritarianism and imposition of the Emergency regime by the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi in 1975. Later the responsibility was handed over to another ardent supporter of civil liberties and democratic rights and a close associate of Roy, Dr. R.M. Pal who was an intellectual activist. The journal has continued like a healthy tradition taking forward the Radical Humanist Movement on the path paved by the great leaders of the movement. M.N. Roy was not only a revolutionary freedom fighter but also a visionary leader. After his long association with the Marxist ideology and also with the Communist International he got recognition as a Communist leader of high stature. But later on when he realized that the actual practice of Communism did not leave any space for the attainment of individual freedom, he was disillusioned. He was in search of a philosophy which would free every individual from the shackles of political, economic, religious, cultural and social slavery and it was at that time that he propounded the philosophy of Radical Humanism or ‘New Humanism’. Under this philosophy he saw the potential not only of attainment of independence from the British rule but also of economic, social and cultural emancipation of the people. He was the only leader in the country who proposed co-operation with the British in their war effort against the Fascist forces during the Second World War because he considered Fascism a greater danger to democracy because it kills all democratic rights including dissent and free expression of views. He said that in any case the British would have to give independence to India after the end of the War because they would become so weak after the War that keeping a hold on the country would not be possible for them. History tells us that Roy was not wrong in his assessment. In view of the expected independence from the British yoke, he prepared a draft of the Constitution of India which could bring real freedom to every individual to be an equal partner in the governance of the country through People’s Committees. He even prepared an economic plan for economic emancipation of the people from poverty as well as equality for all in the economic prosperity which would ensue. But, unfortunately, his proposals were not taken seriously by the Congress [ II ] Selections from THE RADICAL HUMANIST leadership. Later on Jayaprakash Narayan recognised the potential of his proposals, but it was too late as both the leaders had very little time to discuss and devise a plan of implementing the idealistic proposals. Roy understood the importance of political education of the people for the implementation of a real democracy. This could be done only through an ideological mass revolution. It was here that he saw a role for the Radical Humanists. It was then that he came out with “22 Theses”, called “Principles of Radical Democracy – 22 Theses” or “Fundamental Principles of New Humanism in the Form of 22 Theses” which every Radical Humanist was expected to follow before they launched the movement for the education of the people to prepare them for the future leadership of the country beginning with individual villages and small areas in towns, selflessly without themselves nurturing any political ambitions. Roy even at that time understood that party based democracy could not bring about a real democracy because in the ensuing system of representative democracy ultimately the power would concentrate in the hands of a single person or a group of persons leading a party. Roy envisaged a progressively growing movement for the attainment of these goals. Many Radical Humanists joined this movement in various ways and at various levels. The Indian Radical Humanist Association was floated with the aim of intensifying the humanist movement through meetings, lectures, workshops etc. For many years the IRHA worked very successfully. However, during the last few years, the movement has suffered a lot because of the loss of its stalwarts at regular intervals when their leadership and guidance were most required. It has also faced difficult times and the difficulties have been increasing in their intensity with the passing away of time. During the 1975 Emergency many of its leaders were arrested along with other political leaders including Jayaprakash Narayan for fighting authoritarianism.