The apparent censoring of India's most famous ancient figurine has quickly been undone amid uproar. The National Council of Educational Research and Training has pulled a doctored image of the iconic 4,000-year-old "Dancing Girl" sculpture from a new 9th-grade art textbook after historians and educators protested. The bronze Indus Valley figurine, long shown nude in Indian schoolbooks, appears in the new edition with her torso obscured by dark shading, per the BBC. Critics accused NCERT of distorting history and bowing to sensitivities over nudity. An Indian Express editorial argued the change undercut both art and education, saying the figurine matters not for "modesty" but for her "poise, confidence and unmistakable presence."
In response, NCERT director Dinesh Saklani says the edited image is being replaced with the original in digital copies, and future print runs will also restore the uncensored photo. The council has yet to give a reason for the edited image, saying only that a team will examine the matter, per the Times of India. The Dancing Girl, discovered at Mohenjo-daro and now housed in New Delhi's National Museum, is considered a key example of the Indus civilization's artistic and metallurgical skill and currently features, unedited, in a 6th-grade textbook. A textbook committee official involved in that decision tells the Times that he rejected "age-appropriate" concerns about the image because "there was never a problem" and censoring the image would be like putting "a fig leaf to Michelangelo's statue of David."
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