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Which Indian revolutionary, born Narendranath Bhattacharya, became the first Indian to be elected to the leadership of the Communist International (Comintern)?
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Answer: Option A — M. N. Roy
Detailed Solution
- Roy. Manabendra Nath Roy (M. N. Roy), born Narendranath Bhattacharya, was the first Indian to be elected to the leadership of the Communist International (Comintern), the international organisation of communist parties set up in Moscow in 1919.
Early life:
- He was born on 21 March 1887 at Arbelia, in the 24 Parganas district of Bengal.
- He joined the revolutionary group of Jatindranath Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) in Bengal.
During the First World War, he went abroad to obtain German arms for the Indian revolutionaries, and took the name "M. N. Roy".
Work abroad:
- He travelled through South-East Asia, Japan and China, and reached the USA, and then Latin America.
- In Latin America, he became a Marxist, and helped form a communist party there.
- He attended the Second Congress of the Comintern in Moscow, where he presented his views on the colonial question.
- He was later elected to the executive bodies of the Comintern, and became one of its leading members.
- He helped found the Communist Party of India at Tashkent, along with other Indian revolutionaries.
- He went to China in 1927, as a representative of the Comintern.
- He was expelled from the Comintern in 1929, because of differences over policy.
Return to India:
- He returned to India secretly in 1930, and was arrested in 1931.
- He was imprisoned for about six years.
- After his release, he joined the Congress for some time, but later left it.
- He founded the Radical Democratic Party in 1940.
Radical Humanism:
- In his later years, he gave up Marxism and developed the philosophy of "Radical Humanism" (New Humanism), which stressed individual freedom, reason and morality.
- He founded the Indian Renaissance Institute at Dehradun.
His writings:
- "India in Transition" (1922), "Reason, Romanticism and Revolution", and "Memoirs".
- He died on 25 January 1954 at Dehradun.
Why not the other options?
- ✗A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmad and Shaukat Usmani were early communist leaders in India, but they were not the first to lead the Comintern.
Quick tip
Remember: M. N. Roy (Narendranath Bhattacharya) = first Indian in the leadership of the Comintern; helped found the CPI at Tashkent; Radical Democratic Party (1940); Radical Humanism.
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Revolutionaries & Revolutionary Movements — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Revolutionaries & Revolutionary Movements, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the revolutionary side of the freedom struggle in India and abroad: groups such as the Anushilan Samiti, the Ghadar Party and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil, Khudiram Bose and Surya Sen, and Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. Questions often ask about an incident and the people involved, such as the Kakori train action (1925), the Lahore Conspiracy Case, the Chittagong armoury raid (1930) and the bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly (1929). Also learn the founders and headquarters of revolutionary groups formed abroad, such as the Ghadar Party in San Francisco. Practise the revolutionaries questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.