"Fairer, Clothed": Dancing Girl Mascot At International Museums Expo Sparks Debate

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[00:00:34] Hello everyone, my name is Arthi and you are watching HW News. Last week on the occasion

[00:00:39] of World Museum Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled what the Ministry of Culture called

[00:00:45] the mascot of the International Museum Expo currently being held at Prahati Maidan in New Delhi.

[00:00:51] Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the International Museum Expo 2023 at Prahati Maidan

[00:00:57] in Delhi, Prime Minister Modi said his government has prioritized preserving the country's heritage.

[00:01:03] He also lamented previous governments and said that enough efforts were not made in this

[00:01:09] direction post independence. Now Prime Minister also unveiled the official

[00:01:14] mascot, however the mascot has sparked a debate on social media. We all remember the figure

[00:01:20] rhyme popularly known as Mohin Jada Roe dancing girl. The figure rhyme is currently at display

[00:01:25] in the Indus Valley Civilization Gallery of the National Museum. However, the official

[00:01:31] mascot looks something like this. In a social media post, Ministry of Culture wrote

[00:01:36] Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled life size mascot of the IME 2023, the dancing girl

[00:01:43] and high priest from the Sindhu Saraswati Sabhya dah served as the design's main inspiration.

[00:01:50] The mascot is regarded as a contemporary Dwarpal's extending an invitation to the Expo,

[00:01:56] hashtag Museums reimagined. Now the Ministry also said that the mascot of the International Museum's

[00:02:03] Expo is a contemporarized version of the dancing girl made of wood in the Chenna Patnam art style.

[00:02:10] Now the mascot, though takes inspiration from the original, has been clothed in a pink blouse

[00:02:16] and off white bottoms. However, many expressed their unhappiness over the mascot online who turned

[00:02:23] that the original thought behind the sculpture has been changed. The dancing girl as a mascot

[00:02:29] is now fairer, clothed and boxing. Dancing girl is a prehistoric bronze sculpture made in

[00:02:36] lost wax casting about 2300 to 1750 before Christ centuries in Indus Valley Civilization City of

[00:02:45] Mohinjadaro. The statue is 10.5 centimeters that is 4.1 inches tall and it also depicts a

[00:02:51] nude young woman or girl with stylized ornaments standing in a confident naturalistic pose.

[00:02:58] Dancing girl is highly regarded as a work of art. The statue was excavated by British archaeologist

[00:03:06] Mahkeh in the HR area of Mohinjadaro in 1926. The girl in the statue is nude veers a number of

[00:03:13] bangles and a necklace and is shown in a natural standing position with one hand on her hip.

[00:03:20] She wears 24 to 25 bangles on her left arm and 4 bangles on her right arm and some object was held

[00:03:27] in her left hand which is resting on her thigh. Both the arms are unusually long. Her necklace has

[00:03:34] three big pendants she has her long hair styled in a big bun that is resting on her shoulder.

[00:03:41] In 1973 British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler described the item as his favorite statue.

[00:03:48] She is about 15 years old I should think not more but she stands there with bangles all the way

[00:03:55] up her arm and nothing else on. A girl perfectly for the moment, perfectly confident of herself

[00:04:02] and the world. There is nothing like her I think in the world that is what he said.

[00:04:07] Now the statue led to two important discoveries about the civilization post that the new metal

[00:04:13] blending casting and other sophisticated methods and secondly that entertainment especially dance

[00:04:20] was part of the culture. Although there are other thesis about whether this girl in the statue is

[00:04:25] actually dancing or making an offering as part of some ritual, popular belief is that she is dancing

[00:04:32] being her confident self naked and ornamented. Critics said the clothing dancing girl mascot

[00:04:39] not only does disservice to the art but also unnecessary when the dancing girl statue

[00:04:44] in its original form itself could have been the basket. At with a user wrote,

[00:04:49] uncle's in ministry of culture working over time to make sure sanskari sensibilities are

[00:04:54] upheld. Beautiful 4500 year old Mohin Jalaro new dancing girl gets her makeover for the international

[00:05:02] museum expo she is now fair, demurly clothed and a little more baxam. Another requested to not

[00:05:09] temper with the history. Writer and mythologist David Al-Phatnayk wrote and I quote,

[00:05:14] British called her dancing girl. Now Indian government calls her high priest and adore people.

[00:05:19] She has a blouse now like a Bollywood heroine wearing tribal costume and bangles in both arms.

[00:05:26] This is how we rescue civilization. However some also defended the decision. One Twitter user said

[00:05:33] no the girl is not getting a makeover. A new mascot is created for the expo based on the famous

[00:05:39] dancing girl figureine. Asia in 1982 had uppoo a dancing elephant as a mascot that wasn't a makeover

[00:05:47] either for Asian elephant or gunpati. Now many others have also compared it to the renovated

[00:05:53] Jalianwala Bach complex which was criticized for allegedly erasing history of the brutality

[00:05:59] by making it more stylized. Well after this online debate the original tweet by the Ministry

[00:06:05] of Culture was deleted. Well what do you think about the mascot? Tell us in the comment box below

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