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Recently, a dear friend sent me an article by Simran Sharma titled ‘A masterclass in cultural piracy: Inside Sheema Kermani’s attempted historical heist of Odissi dance form’. Reading the article and watching the horrific video embedded within it left me filled with rage – both as an artist and as an Indian.

At the very outset, the logic presented is deeply flawed. Framing India as having a 5,000-year-old “indigenous” past while reducing Pakistan to a mere 79-year-old nation makes no sense. Prior to 1947, India and Pakistan were one nation, sharing a history, culture and heritage. If Pakistan is only 79 years old, then the modern nation-state of India is also only 79 years old. The history before Partition belongs to both.

Furthermore, the idea of an unbroken “5,000-year-old indigenous past” for classical dance has been widely problematised by dance scholars and practitioners alike. It is well-documented that modern classical forms are largely severed from the ancient traditions practiced by hereditary dancers like the maharis, devadasis or nautch dancers. The dances we see today are completely different in function, style, pedagogy, presentation, content and demography.

Sheema Kermani never claimed that Odissi did not originate in Odisha. Rather, she pointed out that temple sculptures in the Sindh region and the famous ‘Dancing Girl’ figurine of Mohenjo-daro exhibit postures – like the tribhanga – that resemble modern Odissi. This is a reasonable visual observation; dance-like postures are found in ancient sculptures across the entire subcontinent. There is also nothing wrong with Kermani embracing Odissi as a legitimate dance form in Pakistan, nor did she claim it as a “Pakistani cultural dance form”. When asked for clarification, she explicitly stated: “I have said this – Hopefully, a dance will evolve that we can call our own.”

Dreaming of evolving a dance form rooted in Odissi – an art she has repeatedly acknowledged learning in India – is entirely different from claiming ownership over the original form. On a personal level, I relate to this deeply. I initially “belonged” to a specific tradition tied to a particular region with a complex history. Over time, through my own experiences, struggles and triumphs, I have developed an approach to the vocabulary of Bharatanatyam that I can call my own. Every artist who devotes decades of their life to an art form earns the right to make that art their own in some way – to find their own distinctive voice within it.

Moreover, ultimately, art cannot be owned or gatekept. It ‘belongs’ to everyone, and certainly to anyone who takes the trouble to learn, master and devote their life to it. If India had not embraced other........

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