ABSTRACT
The act of sacrifice lies at the origins of the chain of mythical organic creation of the world as outlined in the ancient Rigveda. This creation is presented as the dismemberment of a primordial cosmic man whose essence is transferred to other forms of life. Mahatma Gandhi's experiments with self-sacrifice in South Africa had led him to discover its possibilities of self-empowerment. His experiments were first conducted on a personal level: he gave up all the rich elements of his diet, embraced chastity and then focused on self-sacrifice as a means of political protest. He wished to integrate beauty into political culture in the form of truth and goodness, self-restraint, enjoyment and detachment. After independence, the nationalist aesthetics was assimilated by the new Indian state to celebrate the anti-colonial forms of sacrifice that had led to the creation of the nation through monuments and paintings displayed in sites of power as well as in the public space.
