‘Moscow is not a geographical but a political notion’: M.N. Roy and the Communist International, 1920–1930

Wednesday, 15 January 2025 | 14:00 to 16:00 EST | Room 305, Third Floor, York Lanes, Keele Campus, York University

With Christopher Balcom, Doctoral Candidate, Social and Political Thought, York University

Discussant: Asad Haider (Department of Politics, York University)

The revolutionary intellectual M.N. Roy left India as a young nationalist militant in 1915 and would not return to the country until 1930. In the intervening years Roy founded two communist parties—the Mexican Communist Party and the Communist Party of India—and served as a leading figure in the Communist International from 1920-1928. Recent scholarly interest in Roy has tended to privilege Roy’s undeniably fascinating biography at the expense of an adequate engagement with his political thought. In this paper, I focus on Roy’s years in the Communist International, considering his famous 1920 debate with Lenin, his penetrating critique of the Indian national movement, and his efforts to advance a loyalist critique of the Comintern project in the years immediately following his expulsion from the organization in 1928. One finds in Roy’s work from this period a powerful testament to the promise of communist internationalism and unique insights into the tensions between communism and anticolonial nationalism. I also argue that Roy’s writings advance a rather different critique of colonialism than that which prevails today, one premised on a fundamental commensurability between Indian and European social realities and political struggles.

Christopher Balcom is a doctoral candidate in Social and Political Thought at York University. His research focusses on Marxist and anticolonial political theory and intellectual history. His writing has been published in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies and Contemporary Political Theory.

This event is part of the Demos, Democracy and Democratization: South Asia Lecture Series 2024–25.