India’s academic freedom ‘severely restricted’ under BJP government: report

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The report says that the ruling BJP government continued to deploy UGC as a primary vehicle for State influence over higher education. (Representational image) | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

India’s academic freedom has been "severely restricted” under the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, according to the annual “Free to Think 2026” report released by Scholars at Risk’s (SAR), an international network of higher education institutions that works to protect threatened scholars and promote academic freedom, headquartered at New York University.

According to the report, India’s Academic Freedom Index (AFI) score decreased from 0.16 in 2024 to 0.14 in 2026, with both values falling in the "severely restricted" category, next to its neighbours China (0.07) and Afghanistan (0.09), where academic freedom was in the "completely restricted" category. India’s AFI value has declined significantly over the last decade, from 0.41 in 2015. 

The AFI is measured on a scale of 0 to 1 and assesses parameters like campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, freedom to research and teach and institutional autonomy. 

The report documents 382 attacks arising from 321 verified incidents in 59 countries and territories, as reported by SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. Of the 382, India accounted for the highest number of attacks, with 42 cases, the report noted. These attacks included violence, imprisonment or loss of position of academics or students.

The report states that India’s central government expanded its authority over higher education, influencing university governance, leadership appointments, and academic priorities. “University administrators took actions that stifled campus discourse, including dismissing faculty members, cancelling academic events, and enforcing new policies restricting student expression. Both students and police committed acts of violence at protests or other campus gatherings,” the report notes.  

The report says that the ruling BJP government continued to deploy 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 casualisation of academic labour by removing the 10% cap on non-permanent, contract faculty,” it notes. 

The report also notes that the government of Jammu and Kashmir banned the sale, distribution, and possession of 25 books by globally respected scholars, historians, and journalists which addressed Kashmir’s sociopolitical history, including discussions of enforced disappearances and feminist resistance. “Actions like these are particularly threatening because they provide a new model for the relationship between States and educational institutions that prioritises ideological compliance over independent thought,” the report notes.

On the targeting of academic faculty, the report cites the incident in which the Supreme Court issued a "life ban" on three academics from receiving public funding for curriculum development over the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbook’s reference to "corruption in the judiciary”. “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 notes. 

In another example, it notes that following a two-year suspension, South Asian University officially terminated professor Snehashish Bhattacharya in September 2025 for “misconduct against university interests”. Mr. Bhattacharya and fourteen other faculty members had signed a November 2022 letter expressing concern over the university’s handling of student protests in October 2022. 

The report also mentions the case of SRM Institute of Science and Technology professor Lora Santhakumar, who was fired over social media posts critical of civilian casualties resulting from Indian military action in Pakistan. 

The report also notes the case in which Jamia Millia Islamia, a public research university in Delhi, suspended Professor Virendra Balaji Shahre for administering an examination question that asked students to “discuss the atrocities against Muslim minorities in India” for his course “Social Problems in India”.

Ideological polarisation between student groups, particularly the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and left-wing All India Students Association (AISA) and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), transformed academic and cultural events into “political flashpoints,” the report says. “Policy shifts, academic decisions, and debates about national identity, caste, religion, and historical interpretation led to student protests. In some instances, demonstrations resulted in clashes between opposing student factions,” it states.

The report says student protestors on Indian campuses faced pressure from university authorities, police, and opposing student factions. Some institutions, such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Jamia Millia Islamia, cited a lack of official permission and “unauthorised” gatherings to penalise students engaging in peaceful protests. These include organising a “peaceful” memorial for G.N. Saibaba, an Indian scholar who died after repeated imprisonments. At TISS, police complaints were filed against students. After a peaceful demonstration on the fifth anniversary of the 2019 police crackdown related to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) at Jamia Millia Islamia students were given show-cause notices, the report states. 

On a broader scale, the University of Delhi implemented a temporary blanket ban on all public meetings, rallies, and demonstrations, which resulted in the cancellation of cultural festivals, press conferences, iftar gatherings, and any assembly of five or more people. “When the ban expired, the university notified the campus community that all future protests would require approval 72 hours in advance, warning that violators would risk expulsion or police action,” the report notes. 

The report states that academic freedom has declined significantly in 50 of the 179 countries analysed over the past decade. The AFI rated 9 of the 22 countries or territories featured in this report—and 34 overall—as “completely restricted”: Afghanistan, China, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT): Gaza, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, Syria, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. Another six countries or territories in this report—and 30 overall—were rated as “severely restricted”: Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the OPT: the West Bank, and Ukraine.

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