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Academic freedom in India is "severely restricted", according to Scholars at Risk, an international network that monitors attacks on higher education. In its report, 'Free to Think 2026', the group said growing Central government authority over higher education influenced university governance, leadership appointments and academic priorities, while university administrators took steps that curbed campus discourse and student expression.
The report documented 382 attacks on higher education communities in 59 countries and territories between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. It said the 2026 Academic Freedom Index showed academic freedom had declined significantly in 50 of the 179 countries analysed over the past decade, while only nine recorded improvements.
India was listed in the report's "severely restricted" category along with Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Bank and Ukraine. The lowest category, "completely restricted", included Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, Turkiye, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Gaza. The report warned of government campaigns to silence dissent and enforce political compliance in higher education.
On India, the report said, "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. Academic freedom was 'severely restricted' in 2026."
It also alleged that the ruling BJP continued to deploy the University Grants Commission 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 vice-chancellors and accelerating the casualisation of academic labour by removing the 10 per cent cap on non-permanent, contract faculty," it said.
According to AFI data cited in the report, India's score fell from 0.38 in 2022 to 0.14 in 2025. The report said the decline was part of a wider global pattern. 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 report cited several recent cases in India that it described as examples of suppressing dissent. It referred to 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 raising concerns over the university's handling of student protests in October that year.
It also cited the firing of Lora Santhakumar, an assistant professor at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Tamil Nadu, in 2025 over a social media post on Indian military action in Pakistan. On May 7, 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 photograph later circulated widely on social media, leading to online abuse and death threats. The university suspended her on May 8 and terminated her services on December 9, 2025.
According to the report, universities that justified event cancellations often pointed to the content of the event or extramural statements by invited speakers. It said student protesters on Indian campuses faced pressure from university authorities, police and opposing student factions. "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 said.
The report also said national and state government actors took actions that constrained freedom of research, teaching and publication. It cited a March 11, 2026 Supreme Court order imposing a "life ban" on three academics from receiving public funding for curriculum development in a case linked to a Class 8 social science textbook prepared with NCERT, which the court said projected a negative image of the judiciary.
Overall, the report said India formed part of a broader global decline in academic freedom, while detailing specific cases and policy developments that, in its view, narrowed space for teaching, research and campus debate.
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