Men who Battled for Ideas: A Dual Biography

Among India’s revolutionary nationalist leaders in the period between the partition of Bengal and the inter-war years, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (1880–1937), popularly known as Chatto, and Narendranath Bhattacharya (1887-1954) who became MN Roy1 to evade the trap of the British secret service, were the most outstanding figures. Perhaps they were also the ablest and sanest leaders of that group. It is a curious fact that there was nothing in their ancestry and early environment to suggest that they would shape into fiery rebels or anarchists. In fact, there is hardly any other, even among the many remarkable figures of India’s liberation movement who has the aura of heroism, romance, enigma and self-sacrifice which surrounded Chatto and Roy. They seemed to have few things in common and much in contrast. Both came from Bengali bhadralok families but were diverse in social strata: Chatto’s was a distinguished and intellectual urban family, while Roy’s was rural middle class.