Rationalism and New Humanism are just movements and not political parties. Whatever be the reason, movements lack the attraction that the parties have. The literature about any movement grows around the philosophy of the movement and around the life of the person who happened to propound the philosophy. The followers of the movement necessarily depend on the life of the person to propagate the ideology. There is the danger of it developing into hero worship. There are very few of the pioneers who discouraged such exaltation.

In the movement of New Humanism we have plenty of literature in all Indian languages. Particularly the fecundity of Roy’s mind was unparalleled and he produced a vast literature that helped to understand him and his philosophy. His writings earned great respect in philosophical circles. There have been books on the life of Roy in almost all the Indian languages. Out of them, the one “M.N. Roy – his life and philosophy” written by late Koganti Radhakrishna Murty in Telugu is claimed as an outstanding work for the detailed treatment referring to the vast experiences of Roy in various stages and the development of his philosophy. It was actually written in 1983 and it is reprinted by his family members recently. It is a matter of great regret that even that book does not refer to his wife Ellen. It is the same even with English literature. Except the souvenir published after her death “Universe as Her Village” there is no other work about her life or personality. Many of the close followers of the movement admitted they have not much knowledge of her. The level of ignorance about her is pathetic, to say the least. One cannot claim to have known Roy without knowing about her. It is not merely because she happens to be his wife. It is because she is more than a wife to him and to the movement of New Humanism. In India it is usually considered incivility to talk of the wife of a famous man.  Perhaps that is why she was left alone. But she was not a woman in Indian tradition. She had an identity and individuality of her own. Her ideals coincided with those of Roy. That was why she became his wife. As Mrs. Rekha Saraswat has stated, because she found her own reflection in him, she got her own life merged with his.

The traditional wives in India do not have any ideology of their own except in very few cases. While serving her husband in the traditional Indian capacity, Ellen served him in many other capacities. She was the reason for all of us to come to know of Roy and his philosophy. She made him stand before us as an ideal philosopher.

There are many foreigners who happened to happened to come and settled in India either because they were attracted by the philosophy of an individual or because of their appreciation of Indian culture. J.B.S. Haldane, Anne Beasant came like that.  Sister Nivedita who came to India under the influence of Vivekananda,  Meera Behn who came under the influence of Gandhi, the French lady who came to the Aurobindo Ashram and settled as “The Mother” are examples of this category. The way they lived their lives after coming to India are worth emulating because they lived true to their beliefs and convictions. They were true to themselves showing a high level of intellectual integrity. Ellen too belonged to that genus in respect of integrity in spite of her philosophy being completely different from theirs. If we consider Indian tradition more important, she complied with it far better than most of the Indian wives themselves. Even after the death of her husband she carried the torch lighted by him as she felt it her life. She was not willing to forget him. She got a memorial built for him with remnants of his bones hidden inside. She expressed her desire that even after her death, her remnants also shall be laid along with his bones and the memorial rebuilt on them. She grew so sentimental in spite of being a confirmed materialist. Her identity with him was complete, both physical and intellectual. Don’t we find a place for such sentiment in the life of pure materialists? Is it not by declaring that ideas have their own momentum that New Humanism differed from Marxism?

While serving her husband in any capacity, she was conscious that she was serving the movement also simultaneously. For the followers of the movement, it would be an inexcusable failure if they don’t acknowledge her services. If she were just a traditional wife without any concern for his philosophy and values, it would have been different. But she became his wife because of her commitment to the same values and philosophy as he had. Her services in defining the philosophy of Roy and building the movement of New Humanism are unparalleled. When we look at the life of Roy we do not fail to see that his life was completely dominated and filled by his philosophy. There was no place for anything else in his life. But Ellen was not like that. She had a full life. She had varied interests in life like nature, music, art, culture, handicrafts, languages and women’s movements. She lived a life of high ideals. But economically, she was always at a low level.  It was always a drag on her spirits and a limitation on her activities. Living on bare minimums was her habit. She was never dissatisfied because of it. Just because she used to smoke, one should not conclude she lived a comfortable or luxurious life.

After the death of Roy she rededicated herself to the service of his ideals by encouraging the movement and bringing out his works. To pay homage to such a person indicates our culture and values. That is the main purpose of this brief compilation. It is more painful that such a noble life had to meet with such a meaningless and gruesome death in the hands of aimless urchins in this country.

This was originally written in Telugu with encouragement from friends like Somayya, Venkatadri and Veeranna. Finding the lack of any publication on her specially, I felt it better to bring it (The book – Mrs. Ellen Roy) in English as well. I hope it will be appreciated by all.

J.L. Jawahar

17 September, 2014

(This is the introduction of the book ‘Mrs. Ellen Roy’)