India's academic freedom rated 'severely restricted' in global report

India's academic freedom has been classified as "severely restricted" in the annual Free to Think 2026 report released by Scholars at Risk (SAR), an international network of higher education institutions headquartered at New York University that works to protect threatened scholars and promote academic freedom.

The report places India's Academic Freedom Index (AFI) score at 0.14 for 2026, down from 0.16 in 2024. Both readings fall within the "severely restricted" band. The decline continues a longer trend: India's score stood at 0.41 in 2015. The AFI, measured on a scale of 0 to 1, assesses campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, freedom to research and teach, and institutional autonomy.

India's neighbours fare worse on the index. China (0.07) and Afghanistan (0.09) are grouped in the "completely restricted" category. Alongside India, the report lists Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Bank and Ukraine as "severely restricted". Nine of the 22 countries and territories featured in the report — and 34 overall — were rated "completely restricted", including Afghanistan, China, Gaza, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Attacks on scholars and students

SAR's Academic Freedom Monitoring Project documented 382 attacks arising from 321 verified incidents across 59 countries and territories between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. India accounted for the largest share of these attacks, with 42 cases involving violence, imprisonment or loss of position.

The report states that the central government expanded its authority over higher education, shaping university governance, leadership appointments and academic priorities. It points to the University Grants Commission as a primary instrument of state influence, citing policies that loosened academic qualification requirements for vice-chancellors and removed the 10% cap on non-permanent, contract faculty, a move described as accelerating the casualisation of academic labour.

According to the report, university administrators took steps that stifled campus discourse, including dismissing faculty members, cancelling academic events and enforcing new policies restricting student expression. It also notes that both students and police committed acts of violence at protests and other campus gatherings.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the government banned the sale, distribution and possession of 25 books by scholars, historians and journalists dealing with the region's sociopolitical history, including enforced disappearances and feminist resistance. The report describes such measures as providing a model for state-institution relations that prioritises ideological compliance over independent thought.

Faculty targeted

The report cites several cases of academics facing action. The Supreme Court imposed a "life ban" on three academics from receiving public funding for curriculum development over an NCERT textbook reference to "corruption in the judiciary". One of them, Michel Danino, a guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar and chairperson of the NCERT social science curricular group, was dismissed from his faculty position.

South Asian University terminated professor Snehashish Bhattacharya in September 2025 for "misconduct against university interests" following a two-year suspension. Bhattacharya and fourteen other faculty members had signed a November 2022 letter raising concerns about the university's handling of student protests that October.

SRM Institute of Science and Technology professor Lora Santhakumar was fired over social media posts critical of civilian casualties from Indian military action in Pakistan. Jamia Millia Islamia suspended Professor Virendra Balaji Shahre for setting an examination question that asked students to "discuss the atrocities against Muslim minorities in India" for his course "Social Problems in India".

Student protests penalised

Ideological polarisation between student groups — particularly the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the left-wing All India Students Association and National Students' Union of India — turned academic and cultural events into political flashpoints, the report says. Debates over national identity, caste, religion and historical interpretation led to protests, some of which ended in clashes between opposing factions.

Student protesters faced pressure from university authorities, police and rival groups. Institutions including the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Jamia Millia Islamia cited a lack of official permission and "unauthorised" gatherings to penalise students involved in peaceful protests, such as a memorial for the scholar G.N. Saibaba. Police complaints were filed against students at TISS, while Jamia Millia Islamia issued show-cause notices after a peaceful demonstration marking the fifth anniversary of the 2019 police crackdown related to the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The University of Delhi imposed a temporary blanket ban on public meetings, rallies and demonstrations, leading to the cancellation of cultural festivals, press conferences, iftar gatherings and any assembly of five or more people. When the ban lapsed, the university notified the campus that future protests would require approval 72 hours in advance, warning that violators risked expulsion or police action.

Globally, the report finds that academic freedom has declined significantly in 50 of the 179 countries analysed over the past decade.