Indu Mitha (née Chatterjee) (born 1929) is a Pakistani exponent of

Bharatnatyam ''Bharatanatyam'' is a Indian classical dance form that came from Tamil Nadu, India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Hinduism and Jain ...

and one of only two in the nation (the other being

Sheema Kirmani Sheema Kermani (also spelled Kirmani) (Urdu: ; born 16 January 1951) is a Pakistani classical dancer and social activist. She is the founder of Tehrik-e-Niswan Cultural Action Group (Women's Movement). She is also an exponent of Bharatanatyam d ...

). She also remained a faculty member at the Rawalpindi campus of the National College of the Arts, from which she has retired.

Personal life

Indu Mitha was born in Lahore in 1929 as Indu Chatterjee, into a Bengali Christian family of Brahmin heritage that had converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. She studied MA philosophy from Delhi University in 1951. Her father, Gyanesh Chandra Chatterji, was a professor of

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and president of the Government College in Lahore, which was where Mitha grew up. Her elder sister

Uma Anand Uma Anand (1923 – 13 November 2009) was an Indian journalist, actress, and a broadcaster in the mid-1900s. Life She was born in 1923 in Lahore, Punjab, British India to a Bengali Christian family. One of her sisters, Indu Mitha, is a Bharatan ...

married famous

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

director Chetan Anand. Her family moved to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

from Lahore during the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

. In

, she learned

Bharatanatyam ''Bharatanatyam'' is a Indian classical dance form that came from Tamil Nadu, India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Hinduism and Jainism.< ...

from Vijay Raghava Rao and Shrimati Lalita.Dance is thought and feeling, says Indu Mitha
DAWN - 4 April 2008 Mitha learnt modern expressional dance from the iconic choreographer and actress

Zohra Sehgal Zohra Mumtaz Sehgal (born Sahibzadi Zohra Mumtazullah Khan Begum; 27 April 1912 – 10 July 2014) was an Indian actress, dancer, and choreographer. Having begun her career as a member of a contemporary dance troupe, she transitioned into acting ...

. After Independence, Mitha continued her dance training at Sangeet Bharat School and then later from S.V.Lalita. In 1951, she married Captain Aboobaker Osman Mitha, a

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Memon Memon may refer to: Ethnic group and language * Memon people, Sunni Muslim community in Gujarat, India and Sindh, Pakistan ** Memons (Kathiawar) ** Kutchi Memon, from Kutch, Gujarat *** Kutchi Memons in Bombay ** Bantva Memons, from Bantva, Gujara ...

against the wishes of her family, and moved back to

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

with him. Their daughter, Tehreema Mitha is an accomplished

dancer.

Career

In the years following her husband's retirement, Mitha began teaching

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

. Her first position was at the Lahore Grammar school, where she became a celebrated dance teacher. Her students and she were even able to put on a full-on performance at the end of her first teaching sojourn. Her early performances were at private all-women parties, military functions, and Red Cross charity shows or in front of the All Pakistan Women's Association.Veteran dancer wins over Pakistan
BBC News - 11 August 2009 She now does one show a year for private audiences, mostly all-women groups, due to the heightened atmosphere linked to the increasing Islamization in Pakistan. Mitha ran an academy/school "Mazmoon e Shauq" to teach classical dance where she taught many students like

Amna Mawaz Khan Amna Mawaz Khan (, born July 22, 1989) is a Pakistani dancer, theatre artist, feminist and political worker. She is founding member of Women Democratic Front. Early life and education Khan was born in Rawalpindi on July 22, 1989. She got her ear ...

Adaptations

To suit

i cultural and religious norms, Mitha has altered the

performance A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved glo ...

and style of the Bharatnatyam she teaches. She has composed Bharatnatyam songs in Urdu, due to her lack of understanding of

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, the three languages Bharatnatyam

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s are traditionally composed in.

Awards

Mitha received President’s Award for

Pride of Performance Awards (2020–2029) The Pride of Performance is a civil award presented annually on independence day (14 August) by the president to the Pakistani citizens and foreign people in recognition of their contribution to the art, sports, literature, science and educati ...

in August, 2020.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitha, Indu 1929 births Living people Bengali women artists Pakistani Christians Entertainers from Lahore Pakistani choreographers Women choreographers Pakistani female dancers Pakistani dancers Pakistani music educators Dance teachers Pakistani people of Bengali descent Bharatanatyam exponents 20th-century women artists 20th-century dancers Pakistani women music educators Teachers of Indian classical dance Recipients of the Pride of Performance Indian emigrants to Pakistan People from Punjab Province (British India)