Richard Dawkins calls NCERT dropping evolution from textbooks 'tragic', sparks stir

HYDERABAD: Richard Dawkins, the famous British evolutionary biologist has waded into the controversy over the dropping of the Periodic Table and Evolution by the NCERT from school textbooks in India calling the move a “tragic affront to India’s secular beginnings.”

Dawkins, in a tweet said “Modi’s BJP is a tragic affront to India’s secular beginnings. Hinduism is at least as ridiculous as Islam. Between them, these two idiotic religions have betrayed the ideals of Nehru and Gandhi.”

The tweet, within 15 hours of it being posted, racked up 2.6 million views by Thursday afternoon. Dawkins was reacting to an editorial in Nature magazine on the subject of removal of the chapters on the Periodic Table and Evolution by the National Council for Educational Research and Training from class 10 syllabus.

Modi’s BJP is a tragic affront to India’s secular beginnings. Hinduism is at least as ridiculous as Islam. Between them, these two idiotic religions have betrayed the ideals of Nehru and Gandhi.https://t.co/1wIHXKeyGS

— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) May 31, 2023

In response to Dawkins’ tweet, some posted that the subjects have not been removed but moved to a different class, from class 10 previously to class 11 and 12, as part of a wider reshuffle of syllabus.

Several other responses to Dawkins’s tweet posted information about how the two subjects were still part of the NCERT’s higher classes curriculum and called the report in Nature ‘malicious and false’, and questioned the scientist for not ‘checking on the evidence’ before launching criticism on the matter.

Dawkins is famous for his work on evolutionary biology and his books, of which The Selfish Gene, and The God Delusion, are two of his best-known works. He is also known for his atheist views.