The Nomadic Decades

The collection of essays studies the twentieth century Indian revolutionary, writer and thinker, Manabendra Nath Roy's life and ideological trajectories by using new archival records, novel interpretations of previously used sources and other published materials. The life of M. N. Roy (1887-1954), as he is popularly known, was framed by resistance to the overwhelming presence of European territorial empires and imperialism in Asia. The essays provide a nuanced view of M. N. Roy’s changing ideological moorings and the complex dimensions of his long political journey that started with revolutionary visions and ended in Cold War-era radical liberal humanism.

The chapters question the existing perceptions of Roy which are recycled as staples of mainstream academia, and re-examines his relationship with early Indian nationalism, Marxism and Leninism, as well as the Cold War cultural apparatus on the basis of new sources and analytical standpoints, bringing out the multi-layered and contradictory dimensions of his political legacy. Beyond hagiography, the anthology provides fresh perspectives on Roy’s mutating political positions as he remained committed to India’s freedom from colonial rule, anti-fascism and envisaged alternative routes to decolonisation.

The book will be of interest to historians, scholars, academics, and activists engaged with the history and politics of anti-imperialism and decolonisation, left history, communist history, socialist history, the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist International, Asian revolutionaries, Colonial Bengal and post-Independence India, Marxist approaches to twentieth century history, connected histories of Class and Caste divisions, Race, Gender and Imperialisms, and the transcontinental diffusion of ideas and movements. It will also serve as a research resource and reference book for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses in history and political science.