{"id":127762,"date":"2026-06-17T11:28:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=127762"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:28:03","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T06:28:03","slug":"dancing-girls-bare-torso-restored-in-indian-textbook-after-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing Girl\u2019s bare torso restored in Indian textbook after backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Web desk(National Times)- THE \u201ccovered-up\u201d image of an artefact has been withdrawn from an Indian school textbook after it sparked a massive backlash from historians and educationists,\u00a0<em>BBC News<\/em>\u00a0reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bronze sculpture \u2014 known as the Dancing Girl \u2014 shows a girl standing with one hand on her hip and is one of the most recognisable artefacts from the Indus Valley civilisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sculpture was discovered at Mohenjo Daro \u2014 one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation in present-day Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in a newly released grade nine textbook, the figurine\u2019s torso was covered with dark shading, hiding its anatomical features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After it created an uproar, officials said that the original image has been restored in the digital version of the book and that new print editions would also carry the unedited photo of the bronze sculpture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After news broke of the inclusion of the modified image, historians had accused the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) \u2014 which drafted the textbook \u2014 of disfiguring the iconic artefact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NCERT director Dinesh Saklani told reporters that the modified image would be withdrawn from the textbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A chapter on the Indus Valley has been a staple in Indian school curriculum, and though the Dancing Girl sculpture has appeared in textbooks for decades \u2014 including in earlier versions of NCERT textbooks \u2014 its torso has never been censored in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An editorial in the Indian Express, which first broke the news, criticised the modification of the artefact, saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Dancing Girl has been significant not because it conforms to a blindfolded standard of modesty but because it embodies poise, confidence and unmistakable presence. If the task of education is to equip young people to engage with the world as it is, then NCERT would do better to trust both students, and women \u2014 both contemporary and millennia old \u2014 with a little more agency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Web desk(National Times)- THE \u201ccovered-up\u201d image of an artefact has been withdrawn from an Indian school textbook after it sparked a massive backlash from historians and educationists,\u00a0BBC News\u00a0reported. The bronze sculpture \u2014 known as the Dancing Girl \u2014 shows a girl standing with one hand on her hip and is one of the most recognisable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dancing Girl\u2019s bare torso restored in Indian textbook after backlash - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dancing Girl\u2019s bare torso restored in Indian textbook after backlash - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Web desk(National Times)- THE \u201ccovered-up\u201d image of an artefact has been withdrawn from an Indian school textbook after it sparked a massive backlash from historians and educationists,\u00a0BBC News\u00a0reported. The bronze sculpture \u2014 known as the Dancing Girl \u2014 shows a girl standing with one hand on her hip and is one of the most recognisable [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T06:28:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T06:28:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-9-18.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/\",\"name\":\"Dancing Girl\u2019s bare torso restored in Indian textbook after backlash - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-9-18.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-17T06:28:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-17T06:28:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-9-18.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-9-18.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dancing Girl\u2019s bare torso restored in Indian textbook after backlash\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dancing Girl\u2019s bare torso restored in Indian textbook after backlash - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/127762\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dancing Girl\u2019s bare torso restored in Indian textbook after backlash - Nation","og_description":"Web desk(National Times)- THE \u201ccovered-up\u201d image of an artefact has been withdrawn from an Indian school textbook after it sparked a massive backlash from historians and educationists,\u00a0BBC News\u00a0reported. 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