Scientists, students, researchers, and science lovers are participating in a series of rallies in several Indian cities between August 10 and 17 as part of the 2024 India March for Science events. The top agendas include addressing climate change, raising concerns about dwindling research funding, and fighting an onslaught on scientific temper.
While the first two are global concerns, the third has gained significance in India in recent years, mostly as a reaction to India’s ruling Hindu nationalists’ penchant for spreading unscientific ideas.
A poster for the Kolkata event on August 13 demanded an end to the spread of “unscientific and superstitious ideas” and the promotion of scientific temper in accordance with Article 51A(h) of the Constitution of India, which lists developing “the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform” as among the citizens’ fundamental duties.
Many scientists consider the spread of pseudoscience by top officials and people, including scientists in high positions in top education and research institutions, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule as part of a political project of India’s Hindu nationalists.
According to Soumitro Banerjee, general secretary of the Breakthrough Science Society (BSS) and one of the organizers of the India March for Science event in Kolkata, leaders of India’s ruling dispensation are spreading personal beliefs through official channels to establish ancient Hindu superiority over all other civilizations.
“The recent curriculum changes, the initiative to rewrite history, and the systematic spread of pseudoscience are connected and aimed at the same goal of instilling in the public psyche an idea of ancient Hindu superiority,” Banerjee told The Diplomat.
“They want people to believe Vedic India was far advanced compared to all other civilizations in the world and that other civilizations emanated from the ancient Hindu civilization. Such claims without evidence are dangerous for society,” said Banerjee, who is a professor at the Department of Physical Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER-Kolkata).
The spread of unscientific beliefs and the promotion of pseudoscience began gathering momentum in 2014 when Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power. The prime minister set the ball rolling when he claimed that ancient Indians knew the science of plastic surgery — he cited the example of Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu deity as evidence — and genetics. BJP parliamentarian Ramesh Pokhriwal Nishank described modern science as a “pygmy” compared to ancient Indian astrology, and Biplap Deb, then Tripura state’s chief minister, remarked that the internet and satellites existed in ancient India.
More recently, India’s premier science and technology university, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)’s Mandi chapter made headlines for introducing a first-of-its-kind MS (research-based) and Ph.D. course in Music and Musopathy. Students with music degrees from traditional institutes (not formal universities) are also eligible for the course.
Apart from core courses, all students of IIT Mandi must take one or two courses from the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications (IKSMHA) Center. The IKSMHA course modules include the study of “the subtle body, reincarnation, near-death and out-of-body experiences.”
IIT Mandi director, Professor Laxmidhar Behera, who is also a spiritual guru going by the name Dr. Lila Purushottam Das, will teach the course. He has been in the news for blaming non-vegetarianism for landslides in the Himalayas. Under his watch, IIT Mandi has allegedly transformed into a laboratory of what some call “the new educational experiments.”
A Controversial Program
It is not IIT Mandi alone that has made headlines for spreading unscientific ideas. The Indian Knowledge System (IKS) center at the IIT Kharagpur repeatedly published calendars full of unscientific claims.
Scientist Gautam I. Menon, dean (research) and professor, Departments of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University, told The Diplomat that the push for the inclusion of IKS in the National Education Policy 2020 without clear guidelines for what this should contain “has meant that pseudoscientific material such as astrology can now be included on par with other sciences in schools and college syllabi.”
In a statement issued ahead of the India Science March event of August 2024, scientists pointed out that “scientific temper is coming under severe attack” in India as various shades of “obscurantist and pseudoscientific ideas are being spread.”
“Such ideas no longer remain matters of individual belief, as these are finding a place in courses introduced in the name of IKS as a part of the New Education Policy 2020,” said the statement. The signatories included Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, one of India’s best-known cosmologists.
In February, more than 100 scientists and researchers of the All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN) issued a statement raising similar concerns. It drew attention to the “growing socio-political movements that challenge a scientific temper” and “imminent danger posed by organized multi-pronged attacks to undermine a scientific attitude among the populace.” It called for a renewed commitment to evidence-based reasoning, critical thinking, and a scientific approach.
The AIPSN pointed out that unscientific claims by prominent political figures boasting of imaginary technological achievements and exaggerated ideas about ancient Indian knowledge systems are being used to build a hypernationalist narrative.
“In higher education, mandatory courses on ‘traditional knowledge systems’ are being introduced, presenting ahistorical and distorted accounts of knowledge in ancient India,” said the statement, adding that such courses exclusively glorify the Vedic-Sanskritic tradition. This results in the neglect of other cultural streams in ancient India and the significant generation of new knowledge in medieval India (when Islam arrived), the scientists argued.
This “deliberate slant” aimed at erasing or rewriting historical evidence and obstructing critical thinking leaves students and citizens vulnerable to bias and instills a distorted view of syncretic Indian traditions and multicultural reality, the AISPN statement observed, pointing out that “in the long run, this will result in incalculable damage to the progress of Indian science and social harmony.”
Banerjee said that ancient India saw great development of science and technology, but this does not mean there were aircraft in ancient India or doctors knew plastic surgery to the extent of placing an elephant head on a human torso.
“These are anti-science and, through our marches, we are urging the government to stop propagating unscientific ideas,” Banerjee said.
An Ongoing Battle
Simultaneous to the introduction of questionable courses in the curriculum, there are omissions. The statement of the scientists associated with the India March for Science 2024 event pointed out that the federal government-run National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in 2023 dropped several topics from the school syllabus, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, Mendeleev’s periodic table, and even chapters on human rights and democracy.
“Unfortunately, none of these vital topics have been reintroduced despite the storm of nationwide protests. These changes would create obstacles to developing rational and democratic minds among students,” the statement said.
It expressed concerns that the “government and its various organs now actively oppose a scientific approach, independent or critical thinking, and evidence-based thinking and policymaking.”
According to science journalist Sahana Ghosh, associate editor at Nature India, pseudoscience and misinformation erode public trust in science by blurring the lines between credible scientific research and unfounded claims.
“When pseudoscience is presented with the same authority as legitimate science, it can mislead the public, causing confusion about what is scientifically valid. This can lead to skepticism toward established scientific consensus, as people may struggle to differentiate between fact and fiction,” she told The Diplomat.
Repeated exposure to misinformation over time diminishes confidence in scientific institutions, experts, and the scientific method itself, she said, ultimately undermining informed decision-making and public policy.
Asked if he sees the recent spread of pseudoscience as part of a political project of Hindu nationalists, Menon of Ashoka University said it may not necessarily be a conscious political project.
“It’s just a consequence of a consistent belief that traditional knowledge must always be superior to modern evidence-based approaches, as well as of an insistence that Hindu holy texts must already contain all that modern science tells us,” he said.
As an example of India’s ruling dispensation’s use of government institutions and infrastructure to popularize claims that are not evidence-based, Menon cited the support, both explicit and implicit, to “cow science” and the assumption that the natural products of the cow contain all sorts of magic ingredients. This is propagated, for example, by the Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog, set up in 2019 under the Ministry of Animal Husbandry.
“Now, many institutions feel they need to do what they find acceptable to the government. This means that attention and resources are diverted from genuine science projects to other purposes, including quasi-religious ones,” said Menon.
He pointed out that two government institutions reportedly worked for a year to build a device that would reflect the sun’s rays onto the idol of Lord Rama in the Ayodhya Ram Temple at a specific time, on the auspicious day of Ram Navami.
“The government already has an entire ministry that supports alternative medicine, including Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy. While studies of traditional medicine are certainly important, the standards of evidence applied to them are often weak,” Menon said.
According to a science journalist, who spoke to The Diplomat on condition of anonymity, one way to combat science disinformation or the spread of pseudoscience is to set up a fact-checking unit dedicated to science disinformation and unscientific claims.
“Such a fact-checking unit involving members of science groups like BSS and AIPSN and science journalists can play an effective role in countering pseudoscientific ideas and science disinformation,” said the journalist. However, “initiators of such initiatives are likely to face immense pressure from the government in various ways,” he warned.