The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on Monday decided to replace the altered depiction of the famous Mohenjo-daro “Dancing Girl” sculpture in its Class 9 Arts textbook with the original image after facing backlash over the figurine being shown with added clothing. Historian Michel Danino, who headed the textbook development committee for NCERT’s new Class 6 Social Science books, revealed his first reaction was of “disbelief”, calling it “not age-appropriate”. “This refers to our Grade 6 Social Science textbook. The reason I was given was that the image of the Dancing Girl was not ‘age-appropriate’, Danino told PTI. “Our team disagreed; we even checked with teachers of Class 6 and they told us there was never a problem with the Dancing Girl. The notion that nudity is inappropriate is, in my opinion, an obsolete Victorian view. Yet we speak of decolonising Indian education,” he mentioned. Danino further stated, “If the Dancing Girl cannot figure as she is, and with proper dimensions, in a chapter on Indian art, then we have a serious …