Comparative Analysis of Humanitarian Thought of M. N. Roy and Tagore

A Comparative Study of M. N. Roy and Tagore's Humanitarian Thought on Indian Society

by Abhishek Kumar*,

- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540

Volume 19, Issue No. 6, Dec 2022, Pages 492 - 496 (5)

Published by: Ignited Minds Journals


ABSTRACT

Among the Indian nationalists of his day, M.N. Roy stood out as one of the most intriguing radicals. He made an effort to bring together ideas from the rationalist renaissance, physical realism in cosmology, humanist ethics, and a fierce pursuit of personal autonomy. One of the most influential Indian philosophers of the twentieth century was M. N. Roy. Known as the Father of Indian Communism and the first revolutionary leader of India, he gained widespread recognition. Rabindranath's thoughts had a tremendous impact on social reform and equality. The reach of Tagore's literature is vast. The ideal world for him combines rural living with a worldwide university, but without desensitizing the countries, cities, and profit systems. In reality, Tagore didn't provide us a new world, but rather a plethora of lenses through which to examine the one we now inhabit. In terms of nationalist thought, Tagore was decades ahead of his time and deserves widespread exposure. These analyses compare and contrast the perspectives of M. N. Roy and Rabindranath Tagore on Indian society, as well as describing the former's political ideas on freedom and the latter.

KEYWORD

Indian nationalists, M.N. Roy, Tagore, humanitarian thought, cosmology, rationalist renaissance, physical realism, humanist ethics, personal autonomy, Indian philosophers, twentieth century, Father of Indian Communism, revolutionary leader, social reform, equality, literature, nationalist thought, exposure, comparative analysis

INTRODUCTION

The "sun of India," the "great creator," and the "pinnacle of human civilization," Rabindranath Tagore is a luminary of the Indian Renaissance. Rabindranath Tagore began his journey toward becoming a writer at the tender age of eight. The Gitanjali's Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 catapulted Tagore to international literary stardom, attracting readers and scholars from all over the world to India. As noted by André Gide: "When I'm in Tagore's presence, I feel as insignificant as Tagore must have felt when he sang before the Almighty. Indian revolutionary, radical activist, political theorist, and 20th-century philosopher Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, commonly known as M. N. Roy; 21 March 1887 - 25 January 1954) was born on 25 January 1887 and died on 25 January 1954. Roy established both the Communist Party of India and the Mexican Communist Party (Tashkent group). In addition to helping the Chinese government, he represented Russia in Communist International conferences. After WWII, Roy abandoned traditional Marxism in favor of radical humanism in an effort to find a middle ground between liberalism and communism. Tagore argues that we can't have a proper grasp of humanity unless we learn to love them. Rabindranath Tagore is hailed as a "great humanitarian" because of his boundless optimism and devotion to humankind. Studying Tagore's depiction of human love, scholars agree, "Tagore argues that love and peace is the greatest quality of all man" and "Tagore claims that love and peace is the finest quality of all man." "As a poet, Rabindranath Tagore excelled at expressing feelings of tenderness and warmth. Most of his work‘s center on depictions of love in all its splendor. Tagore's poetry is preoccupied with affection, whether it is for other humans, the divine, or the natural world." The human element in his works ranges from the abstract to the extremely evident to the very universal. He hopes that one day all people will be able to live in peace and prosperity in the same nation as their ancestors. Tagore spent his life singing songs that celebrated and respected the human race. His compositions were always motivated by his deep affection for humanity, and by this drive, he explored and articulated his own ideas on the human condition. In Tagore's works, the human being does not look for methods to reject existence, and he or she does not abandon human life in search of freedom, the pure land, or an endless world. The human, on the other hand, seeks out life, delves deeply into the world, and yearns to be a part of its vibrant reality for as long as possible. Tagore rejects traditional faith and instead draws inspiration for his new "Human Religion" from the best parts of other traditions while rejecting the worst and most orthodox aspects." Tagore's humanistic philosophy reformulates the concept of Bhakti by proclaiming that one attains dedicated love for God by selfless service to God's creations. Tagore inverts the Bhakti doctrine, which argues that humans would submit to divine authority if they adore God enough. As the whole British Army was committed to World War II, M.N. Roy was certain that an armed revolution could successfully expel the Brits. As the point on, he hopped across the globe under a plethora of false identities in an effort to acquire German weapons by whatever means necessary. In June of 1916, after a long journey via Malay, Indonesia, Indo-China, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and China, he arrived at San Francisco, California, United States of America. He tried and failed to buy weapons. To get the news of his arrival in San Francisco into the local press, he had to go to Palo Alto, California, a town not far from Stanford University. After moving there, he decided to legally alter his name from Narendra Nath Bhattacharya to Manabendra Nath Roy. The police department dismantled the criminal network that Roy had left behind. He also learned about Jatin Mukherji's killing at the hands of the police.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE POLITICAL THOUGHT ON FREEDOM/NATIONALISM

Tagore says that a country is "a full population adopts when organized for a mechanical purpose," which means that it is a political and economic union of the people living there. Nationalists see business and research as tools to further their quest for greater power. The works of Rabindranath Tagore have transcended the boundaries of language, culture, and even state and country to inspire generations of thinkers and feelers everywhere. Tagore's creative talent, which lasted six decades, is simply a reflection of a sensitive artist, an empathetic man of letters, a deep thinker, and a strategic experimenter. Since it would be dishonest to offer an overview of all of Tagore's intellectual pursuits in a single article, the author of this piece narrows in on his views on Indian nationalism to provide a glimpse into the essay's subject's intellectual heart. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), better known by his pen name Gurudev, had several opportunities to discuss Indian nationalism. Tagore's unique, integrated ideas on Indian nationalism are highlighted in a speech released in a compilation of his nationalist lectures titled the same in 1917. His main argument is that nationalism's soul is best expressed via its expansive humanism concern as opposed to its narrow political tactics. In the context of the First World War, when fanatical nationalism spread like a disease, he may have been compelled to see it as such. He was attempting to undermine the concept of nationalism, which he saw as a political excuse for aggressively seizing other countries' territory and resources. Tagore's view of nationalism is heavily influenced by ancient Indian philosophy, in which all of creation was seen as one home. Tagore was attempting to distance himself from the prevalent notion of nationalism by should only give the world its humanity if it wishes to give anything to the world at all. People everywhere may be global citizens without sacrificing their feeling of global citizenship. Hence, it has to be developed using a wide range of approaches. In Tagore's view, humanism is a universal concept that attempts to unite people regardless of their background. He continues by saying that saints like Nanak, Kabir, and Chaitanya sparked a humanist movement in India. However, it gradually waned as racism and casteism spread aggressively and tore our community apart.

Social Justice in the Writings of Rabindranath Tagore

The Indian people revere Rabindranath Tagore and refer to him by several titles of respect, including Maharishi, Gurudev, and Rishi. While he was alive, he was a dynamic figure in the Indian literary scene. Apart from his fame as a literary critic, he was also regarded as a brilliant playwright, poet, producer, actor, painter, musician, social reformer, educator, prophet, philosopher, and tale writer. In the annals of Indian culture, to label Tagore a phenomenon would not be an exaggeration. Above all else, he was a humble guy, despite his many accomplishments as a liberation fighter, scholar, painter, and writer. Tagore had a major impact on the development of Indian literature. He had been a renaissance man and cultural revolutionary who reimagined Bengali art by removing the barriers to its development. Tagore was a staunch opponent of imperialism. The complexities of this world were clear to him. India benefits much from Tagore's works. He believed that embracing one's own culture while also appreciating that of others might be two sides of the same coin. While he was a member of Bengal's upper class, Tagore never saw himself as superior to anybody. He thought that school was the key to solving everyone's difficulties. It was his opinion that a lack of education was to blame for the country's economic woes, sectarian strife, and technological behind. Binodini Kripalini (1959) is a book by Rabindranath Tagore that was first published in Bengali as Chokher Bali (meaning eye pain) in the year 1902. This book is often regarded as the pioneering work of contemporary Bengali literature and maybe even Indian literature as a whole. The story centers on the dynamics between a widowed mother and her son, whom she focuses all of her love and attention on, and it provides a window into the privileged world of 1950s Bengal. There is a grand total of six people in this book. Among all the female heroines Tagore has written about, Binodini stands out as the most believable, consequential, and energetic. Binodini is unafraid to criticize today's culture and customs. Binodini, a beautiful and young widow, frees herself imposed on her are the ones in which she really comes into her own as the novel's hero. Throughout Tagore's writings, she is thus regarded as the most vibrant personality. Binodini is a beautiful, bright, and well-educated young lady whose parents have spent all of their money on her studies and hence cannot afford to marry her off. Because to financial constraints, the parents are unable to provide a dowry. A Hindu family would be considered dishonorable if they chose to wait any longer than 12 years to marry off their daughter. Her parents panic and marry her off to a lad who isn't healthy, and he dies shortly after the wedding. She's reduced to being a beggar in a heartless town. Seeing her own intelligence and beauty, she confidently faces down the society's unsympathetic system. She fights valiantly against the adversity and shame that were typical for a widow of her period. The novel's tragedy is seen as the humiliation of a Hindu soul. Two concepts of particular significance to his nation are revealed via an analysis of his works. One concerns the Universalist according to Vedic ideals, that is, the enlightened soul, and the other concerns the subtlety of woman, representing the energy and sensitivity of the Universal Mother, rather than the sensuous young woman as regarded by this pleasure-seeking culture. Tagore displays these two pillars of Indian social awareness in opposition to the climate of violence, hate, superstition, and depravity.

COMPARISON OF M. N. ROY AND RAVINDRANATH TAGORE’S VIEWS ON INDIAN SOCIETY

Extreme nationalism poses a major threat. It's the one item that's been causing problems in India for a long time. Notwithstanding the fact that we have been governed and dominated by a country with an exclusively political outlook, we have striven to foster within ourselves a faith in our future political destiny, regardless of the legacy we inherited from the past. He compared the concept of a "country" in the West with the concept of a "community" in Indian history. He believed that the community or society in India was absolute. For Tagore a country was 'the political and economic union of a people' formed for 'a mechanical aim'. Tagore argued that the idea of "nation" was uniquely contemporary and Western, and hence could not be linked with "ethnic" or "linguistic" groups. On the one hand, Tagore's views on nationalism distinguish between the country as nation-state, complete with its coercive apparatus, and on the other, society as a representation of a life-world. As the nation-state is antagonistic to the genuine 'social man,' this struggle between the state and the social man's spiritual life-world disrupts the harmony of human existence. A major tenet of Tagore's views on nationalism is the separation of the country as nation-state, complete with its coercive apparatus, from society as a representation of a life-world. As the nation-state is antagonistic to the genuine 'social man,' this struggle calling it a "geographical monster" and questioning its very existence. He did not support Indian nationalism so long as it was trapped in a scenario where the concept of the nation-state would come to trump that of Indian society and civilisation. As a result, Tagore said that rural India is where one should go for the essence of Indian culture. Tagore argued that the village society, with its capacity to "harmonize the dissimilar," symbolized the distinctiveness of Indian civilisation. The main issue in India is not political, as Tagore saw it. It's a great way to meet new people. This is not only a problem in India, but a worldwide one. My view is that there should be no one vested political interest. These concepts originated in 1901, when Tagore authored two pieces (both published in Bangadarshan) titled "Atmoshakti —Nation ki" on the topic of nations. Tagore was convinced that Asian civilizations had stolen the concept of nationalism from the European model and that India had never been a nationalist country. His belief that nationalism is nothing more than a business and political structure is reflected in works like The Home and the World and Four Chapters. Tagore abandoned nationalism for "global humanism" by 1910. M. N. Roy advocated a fresh perspective on humanism that is tailored to the needs of the individual man in every culture. He recognizes the current humanism's flaws and develops a fresh approach to the philosophy. His efforts to revive humanism begin with an attempt to define human nature. Manhood is the starting point for all of humanity, and all of humanity is a means to a goal. As a result of Roy's views on human nature, the foundations of modern government were laid. He concluded that they had been created by man in an effort to secure his independence. Hence, the state and society are means to the purpose of human growth. Roy's devotion to personal autonomy blinded him to the connection between people and their communities. The value he placed on personal freedom was overstated. Roy believed that manmade society and that in order to join a state, one had to agree to its constraints. Yet he overlooks the fact that "man is a social animal," and that humans need other people for their survival and full potential. According to Roy, the only way for Organized Democracy to succeed is if individuals of exceptional intelligence, moral character, and integrity get to positions of authority. Nonetheless, both of these scenarios seem to be more idealistic than realistic. Intelligent individuals with great moral character and spotless integrity do not always attain to authority in any community, as history attests.

POLITICAL THOUGHTS OF M. N. ROY

One of the most influential Indian philosophers of the twentieth century was M. N. Roy. Known as the "Father of Indian Communism" and the "first revolutionary leader of India," he gained widespread cannot argue that among contemporary Indian political philosophers, M. N. Roy was not the most learned. He had a large body of written work and was a gifted orator with an engaging delivery. His largest work, titled, has almost six thousand pages. In the annals of anticolonial radicalism, Manabendranath Roy occupies a peculiar place. It is well knowledge that Roy has been involved in politics and has deep philosophical thoughts. An anti-colonial rebel who helped organize the procurement of weapons from Germany for an insurrection in India during World War I. Later in life, he changed identities and lived as a political exile in other countries, including the United States, Mexico, Russia, and Germany. Before his tragic failure to organize the communists in China in 1927 and subsequent expulsion from the Comintern, he pondered Lenin on national liberation and operated at the highest levels of international communism as a member of the Communist International. After that, he slowly drifted into the shadows of postcolonial Indian politics, where the spoke of an esoteric radical humanism that betrayed his alienation from radical political struggles. "Extraordinary failure" is what Sudipto Kaviraj has to say about M N Roy. At the time of the fight for independence, he was a leading intellectual figure. You may include him among the few of living Indian intellectuals. Unfortunately, his political career was a total failure. His philosophy, radical humanism, is often regarded as his most significant contribution.

Radical Humanism

M N Roy's version of radical humanism is a libertarian stance. As a reaction to widespread discontent with mainstream ideas, radical humanism emerged. i. Since it limits people's ability to have a voice in government, parliamentarian democracy is insufficient. So, there can be no genuine liberty in the absence of a really democratic system. ii. Fascism must be opposed because it puts the national ego above the individual. iii. Neither communism nor capitalism are liberated because they place man under the collective ego of class. This is why we need a philosophy that places a premium on the worth of the individual human being and seeks to liberate people. Roy's dissatisfaction with Marxism's nuanced aspects, from its shaky ethical foundations and overemphasis on the economic interpretation of history to its substantive, if not total, disregard to the value of the intellect in the dynamics of the historical processes, is where the idea of new humanism was born. Hence, at first, Roy attempted to develop a Marxist-inspired scientific humanism, which he dubbed the "new humanism, new, because it is humanism enriched, reinforced, and elaborated by scientific knowledge and social experience gained during the centuries of modern civilization." The philosophical movement known variously as radical humanism and new humanism is the apex of an intellectually perplexing journey that has spanned more than three decades. Roy, like many other people, is not a fan of Karl Marx's idea of class conflict. Roy argues that the decline in self-awareness is a result of Marx's emphasis on class conflict. In addition, he thought Marx placed too much emphasis on the working class. Roy maintains that there is no such thing as a division between the exploiting class and the working class in a capitalist society. Roy did not think that the concept of surplus value was something out of the ordinary in the capitalist system. He thinks socialist societies also allow for the accumulation of capital and the generation of surplus value. Roy argues that the Marxist theory of history is flawed because it gives the mind too little credit for shaping society. Together, humankind's intellect and deeds constitute a powerful social force. The Marxist economic explanation of history is another theory that Roy rejects.

CONCLUSION

Indian literature's greatest benefactor is Rabindranath Tagore. He was always so kind and believing while praising the great love between individuals. He declares that man is an adversary of pride and brutality and a heavenly light, an openness of generosity, a tranquil spirit, love, and an opponent of pride and brutality. Tagore elevates man's worth and ushers in the ethos of doers through his writing. He urged others to live more purposefully by using their egos to forge new identities and grow existing ones, therefore validating his own place in the world. Tagore has unwavering faith in the existence of a paradise on Earth. The hereafter, in his view, is a place of perfect happiness, love, and liberty. Tagore has spent his life singing tributes to others in the form of humanitarian songs. His works were always inspired by his deep respect and admiration for humanity, and he worked hard to convey his ideas and feelings about people via his art. Tagore makes a difference in the liberation and perfection of the human through his philosophy of action. Roy's dissatisfaction with Marxism's nuanced aspects, from its shaky ethical foundations and overemphasis on the economic interpretation of history to its substantive, if not total, disregard to the value of the intellect in the dynamics of the historical processes, is where the idea of new humanism was born.

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Research Scholar, University of Delhi