NCERT Covered a 4,600-Year-Old Statue's Bare Torso in Textbook, Then Restored It

India's National Council of Educational Research and Training digitally shaded the bare torso of the Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro—a bronze figurine from 2600 BCE—in a class 9 art textbook, citing age-appropriateness. Archaeologists and art historians objected that the alteration misrepresented the artifact's iconographic integrity. By 16 June 2026, NCERT reversed course and announced restoration of the original image, withdrawing the modified version within days.