6 SOCIAL SCIENTIST arts. Zhou Enlai discusses the problem of socialist freedom and the distinction between and inter-relation of political and artistic criteria. These are the very questions to which the papers collected here address themselves. Some of us took the initiative to hold a seminar on Marxism and Aesthetics in Kasauli in October 1979 in order to discuss the same or similar problems within the Indian context. Zhou Enlai would have been the first to recognize that the questions of art, as indeed of Marxian theory in general, have to be discussed in the specific, concrete conditions and in the context of practice in a particular country. The seminar was an attempt to get some people together who have an abiding interest in the questions raised above. We thought that it would be a good and useful exercise if a few preliminary explorations are made, and experiences exchanged. The papers presented here fall into three broad groups. The first group of papers relate to the history of Marxian ideas and debates on aesthetics. They focus naturally on the problem of realism. A paper discussing art and literature in the Soviet Union of the twenties discusses experiences which are still controversial. The second group of papers address themselves specifically to the concrete conditions and experience in India. The third group of papers deal with the visual arts. Normally a discussion on Marxian aesthetics has a tendency to overemphasize literature. We have therefore made a special effort to include other arts as well. As a result we have papers on painting, cinema, dance and architecture. It is hoped that the discussion of Marxian, aesthetics in terms of these arts as well as Indian practice in these arts will continue and that the Kasauli seminar would have a modest role in provoking such a discussion. Objective of the Seminar There were some obvious lacunae. For one thing, not all regions of India were represented at the seminar. For another, the theatre was not represented. We do not claim that the seminar has answered all these complex and vexing questions. Our purpose was modest, to get a few people together who had a common and practical interest in the exploration of the questions posed above. The title of the seriiinar, Marxism and Aesthetics, may also appear a trifle presumptuous to some. The title was chosen mainly to define the interests of the seminar. It meant that the people who gathered at Kasauli were genuinely interested in understanding