New Delhi: The NCERT appears to be rolling back its decision to deface the defining and iconic Harappan-era ‘Dancing Girl’ figurine in one of its textbooks after a backlash.Earlier in the day, the Indian Express‘s Ritika Chopra had reported that the NCERT shaded in the nude figurine’s torso and groin – making it appear clothed – in the opening chapter of its arts education textbook for Class 9 students titled Madhurima. This is even as the statuette has appeared in its original form in other textbooks for almost three decades now.“In the image, the figurine’s torso has been shaded over from the shoulders down, obscuring anatomical details visible in photographs of the original and giving the impression that she is clothed,” her report notes.🚨SCOOP🚨Remember the ‘Dancing Girl’ from your history textbooks? Arms akimbo, bangles & necklace, she is the defining face of Indus Valley Civilisation.But kids opening textbooks today will see a diff image.NCERT’s new Class 9 Arts textbook shades over her nude torso,…— Ritika Chopra (@RitikaChopra__) June 15, 2026Following backlash, NCERT director Dinesh Saklani told PTI that it will ‘replace’ the image in question, although it is not yet clear what that will entail.This is not the first attempt to “clothe” the four-inch tall ‘Dancing Girl’, which has been described as carefree and confident.In 2023, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled what the Ministry of Culture called the ‘mascot’ of the International Museum Expo, reporters found that the larger-than-life sized statue, bathed in pink light, had been inexplicably clothed in a way that defies history and shows no respect for women’s bodies.Writing for The Wire on the transformation, artist and curator Shuddhabrata Sengupta had noted how, “No naked human body can ever match the obscenity of this costume.”‘The Mascot of the International Museum Expo is a contemporized version of the Dancing girl,’ says a government handout. Photo: TwitterIn an interview with Indian Express on May 27, historian Michel Danino, who headed the textbook development committee for NCERT’s new Class 6 Social Science books, had said that the NCERT objected to placing the “Dancing Girl” on the opening page of a chapter on Indus Valley Civilisation because the figurine was nude and could become “controversial”.“I even told NCERT that if the Dancing Girl is not age-appropriate, then perhaps children of that age should not be allowed into the National Museum either because the figurine is displayed there,” Danino had said. The report notes that Danino eventually agreed to move the image from the chapter opener to an inside page and reduce its size.The paper asked Saklani, the NCERT’s director, if the masking had connections to nudity, to which he had said, “No, I don’t think there is any specific reason.”