{
  "id": 6069341,
  "title": "Indu Mitha’s love story carried Bharatanatyam across Partition, kept it alive in Pakistan",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/07/indu-mithas-love-story-carried-bharatanatyam-across-partition-kept-it",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-07T00:00:43.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/indu-mithas-love-story-carried-bharatanatyam-across-partition-kept-it-alive-in-pakistan-10866178/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Indu Mitha, a 97-year-old Bharatanatyam exponent, passed away in Dublin after a short illness. Born to a Bengali-Christian philosophy professor in Delhi, Indu moved to Karachi in 1951 against her parents' wishes to marry a Pakistani army officer, Aboobaker Osman Mitha. Despite opposition from her family due to cultural and religious differences, Indu and Mitha had three daughters. In Karachi, Indu brought Bharatanatyam, a dance form rooted in Tamil Nadu, to a conservative cultural landscape. She studied philosophy at Delhi University and Bharatanatyam under Lalitha Shastry before collaborating with actor and dancer Zohra Sehgal at their Lahore institute. Mitha later served with the British Indian Army, eventually setting up the Special Service Group (SSG) of the Army. Despite the conservative cultural shift in Pakistan, particularly during the Zia-ul-Haq years, Indu Mitha persevered, teaching Bharatanatyam to over 2,000 students across Lahore, cantonment houses, schools, and academies. She even formed her own academy, Mazmoon-e-Shauq, and experimented with the dance form's musical and literary vocabulary by using North Indian instruments and Urdu poetry. Indu's contributions, such as choreographing unconventional themes and raising social questions in her dance works, have left a lasting impact on Pakistani classical dance.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "Indu Mitha, 97, passed in Dublin after short illness",
    "Brought Bharatanatyam to conservative Pakistan landscape",
    "Formed Mazmoon-e-Shauq academy, taught 2,000 students"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Indian Express - Lifestyle",
        "title": "Indu Mitha’s love story carried Bharatanatyam across Partition, kept it alive in Pakistan",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/07/indu-mithas-love-story-carried-bharatanatyam-across-partition-kept-it-6070718",
        "published": "2026-09-07T00:00:43.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}