Javed Akhtar becomes first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award

Veteran Bollywood lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar has become the first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award for critical thinking, advancing human progress and humanist values.

Photo courtesy: Wikimedia

The award is named after English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and has been presented since 2003.

His wife, actress Shabana Azmi announced the honour on Twitter on Sunday.

@Javedakhtarjadu wins Richard Dawkins Award 2020 for critical thinking , holding religious dogma upto scrutiny,advancing human progress and humanist values. Awesome ❤️ https://t.co/tJy9CBDOzI
— Azmi Shabana (@AzmiShabana) June 7, 2020

Actors ranging from his son Farhan Akhtar to Anil Kapoor and Dia Mirza congratulated the veteran lyricist.

View this post on Instagram

Congratulations pa.. for being the first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award for critical thinking and advancing humanist values. You absolutely and unequivocally deserve it. So so proud. ❤️❤️

A post shared by Farhan Akhtar (@faroutakhtar) on Jun 8, 2020 at 1:09am PDT

Knowing that Richard Dawkins has been your hero since you read 'The Selfish Gene', the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award must be extra special for you @Javedakhtarjadu Saab! It's a truly incredible honour! Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/J5EXqP2I8g
— Anil Kapoor (@AnilKapoor) June 7, 2020

Javed Akhtar Saab has won the the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award 2020 for critical thinking, holding religious dogma upto scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values. He is the only Indian to have won this award! @Javedakhtarjadu Congratulations! You make us proud.
— Dia Mirza (@deespeak) June 7, 2020

Heartiest congratulations @Javedakhtarjadu saab on becoming the first Indian to win Richard Dawkins Award 2020 for critical thinking, advancing human progress and humanist values 👏🏻👍🏻 #ONENONLY pic.twitter.com/cvA75amHsL
— Urmila Matondkar (@UrmilaMatondkar) June 8, 2020

Javed Akhtar has also earlier been awarded the Padma Shri (1999), the Padma Bhushan (2007), has won five National Awards for Best Lyricist and the Sahitya Akademi Award.