84 SOCIAL SCIENTIST One docs not have to be a Marxist to apply Marxian aesthetics to this art form to criticize the situation of folk dances existing in the country. Apart from the obvious dislocation from the processes of life, the classical dance forms also exist as ideological vehicles for a class that thrives on nostalgia and mystification of the real content of history. Though one accepts that there is no mechanical relationship between ideology and cultural forms, it has to be said here that art, like religion, has a strong reactionary potential and this has been used as such very cansciously even today. The theory that we finally need to work towards is how to generate the creativity, self-expression, dignity and militancy of the people. Marxist aesthetic theory posits itseif against the basic formations of capitalist society like alienation, objectification, commodification and so on, which are all variations of the dehu" manization of the essential man under capitalism. The problem arises when this is sought to be applied to traditional cultures which had already evolved sophisticated philosophies and theories of art and society long before European'western societies pulled out of their Dark Ages. It becomes further complex when we realize that almost all the significant human concepts in traditional cultures trace their origins historically to a time which Marx would call "primitive communism", when man was supposedly closer to nature, to himself and to his fcllowmcn. This has important implications, for in their aesthetic manifestations one comes face to face with remarkably materialistic concepts predating Marx by centuries. The Indial^ system of aesthetics, for example, is formulated upon the centrality of man. Concepts like the pancha mahabuta maintained the primacy of the human body in all cultural configurations. The module for every objective projection was man himself. For example, all measurements were direct references to the human hody and senses. This location of tlie human body in the environment was revealed abstractly in the concept of the mandala. The mandala was a dynamic consonance between tlie cosmos, the community and the individual. The subject/object dialectics conceptualized in the mandala invaded the farthest reaches of material life to find expression to it as the basic conceptual model for every conceivable form of objects and daily activity. Further, the Indian concept of aesthetics negates inherently the formal and esoteric categories like "beauty", "style" and so