New Delhi: Academic freedom in India is “severely restricted”, with curbs on research and teaching driving the country’s Academic Freedom Index (AFI) score down to 0.14 in 2025 from 0.38 in 2022, according to a report released Tuesday by Scholars at Risk, an international network that monitors attacks on higher education.
The report, ‘Free to Think 2026’, documented 382 attacks on scholars, students and higher-education institutions across 59 countries and territories between 1 July 2025, and 30 June 30 2026. India is among the countries facing “severely restricted” academic freedom, a category that also includes Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Bank and Ukraine.
The report’s lowest category, “completely restricted”, includes Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Gaza.
India’s AFI score has fallen sharply in recent years, from 0.38 in 2022 to 0.14 in 2025, according to AFI data. However, the decline is not limited to India. The 2026 AFI data shows significant declines in academic freedom in 50 of 179 countries over the past decade, while only nine recorded improvements. In the US, institutional autonomy fell from 3.3 in 2019 to 1.7 in 2025, with the score dropping from 2.4 in 2024 alone.
The AFI measures academic freedom across five dimensions—freedom to research and teach, institutional autonomy, academic exchange and dissemination, campus integrity, and academic and cultural expression.
Through its Academic Freedom Monitoring Project, Scholars at Risk (SAR), a US-based independent nonprofit organisation, tracks attacks ranging from direct repression and wrongful imprisonment to violence against student protesters and government interference in university affairs.
Also Read: India’s academic freedom lowest since 1900—worse than during the Emergency
Govt influence over universities growing
The report states that India’s central government “expanded its authority” over higher education, influencing university governance, leadership appointments and academic priorities. It says the ruling BJP continued to use the University Grants Commission (UGC) as a primary vehicle for State influence over higher education.
“The UGC faced scrutiny in recent years for policies perceived to tighten government control over universities, including loosening academic qualification requirements for university vice-chancellors and accelerating the casualization of academic labor by removing the 10 percent cap on non-permanent, contract faculty,” the report states.
It also says university administrators took actions that “stifled campus discourse”, including dismissing faculty members, cancelling academic events and introducing policies restricting student expression. The report cited several recent cases of “suppressing dissent” among faculty members.
For instance, it highlighted the 2025 termination of South Asian University professor Snehashish Bhattacharya for “misconduct against university interests”. Bhattacharya and 14 other faculty members had signed a November 2022 letter expressing concern over the university’s handling of student protests in October that year.
It also cited the firing of Lora Santhakumar, an assistant professor at SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Tamil Nadu, in 2025 over a social media post on Indian military action in Pakistan. On 7 May 2025, Santhakumar shared a series of WhatsApp status updates opposing calls for war. One post read: “Say NO to war. And don’t be afraid to say so, even if it is not the popular opinion.”
Her phone number and photo subsequently circulated rapidly on social media, triggering online abuse and death threats. The university suspended her on 8 May and terminated her services on 9 December 2025.
The report also mentioned the suspension of Jamia Millia Islamia professor Virendra Balaji Shahre over an exam question last December asking students to “discuss the atrocities against Muslim minorities in India”.
Constrained freedom of teaching and publication
The report states that national and state government actors also took actions that constrained freedom of research, teaching and publication.
For instance, it says the Supreme Court of India issued a “life ban” on 11 March 2026, barring three academics from receiving public funding for curriculum development. The issue involved three scholars who had collaborated with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for the Class 8 social science textbook that referenced ‘corruption in the judiciary’ that the court deemed to ‘project a negative image’ of the institution.
“The Court banned the textbook and ordered governments to dissociate from the authors. One of the scholars, Michel Danino, a guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar and chairperson of the NCERT social science curricular group, was dismissed from his faculty position,” the report said.
It added that the Supreme Court modified its stance on 22 May 2026, allowing public universities and states to independently decide whether the scholars could contribute to future curricular work.
Separately, the report states that the government of Jammu and Kashmir banned the sale, distribution and possession of 25 books by globally respected scholars, historians and journalists addressing Kashmir’s sociopolitical history, including enforced disappearances and feminist resistance.
Protests, curbs on campus events
According to the report, universities often cited the content of events or “extramural statements” by invited speakers when cancelling them. For example, Banaras Hindu University and Mumbai University cancelled lectures in January this year because of the speakers’ vocal criticism of the BJP-led government.
It also highlighted cases where institutions offered no substantive reasoning. When Delhi University cancelled a seminar titled “Land, Property and Democratic Rights” in February, for instance, it cited “administrative reasons”.
The report states that student protesters on Indian campuses faced “pressure” from university authorities, police and opposing student factions.
Some institutions, including the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Jamia Millia Islamia, cited a lack of official permission and “unauthorised” gatherings to penalise students taking part in peaceful protests. “TISS filed a police complaint against students organising a peaceful memorial for GN Saibaba, resulting in criminal charges of unlawful assembly, ‘promoting enmity between groups,’ and ‘injuring national harmony’.”
“Jamia Millia Islamia served show-cause notices to students peacefully demonstrating on the fifth anniversary of the 2019 police crackdown related to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),” the report states.
It also cited a Delhi University notification issued in March mandating that all future protests on campus require approval 72 hours in advance and warning that violators could face expulsion or police action.
The report links campus tensions to political polarisation among student groups such as the ABVP, AISA and NSUI, saying academic and cultural events have become “political flashpoints”.
(Edited by Chingkheinganbi Mayengbam)
