Owing to increasing government control over higher education, influencing university governance and restricting student expression and protests, academic
freedom in India is “severely restricted”, according to a report by Scholars at Risk, an international network monitoring attacks on higher education. The report, ‘Free to Think 2026’, which lists 382 attacks on higher education communities in 59 countries and territories from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, has cautioned against government campaigns to suppress dissent and enforce political conformity in higher education, according to the news agency PTI. According to the 2026 Academic Freedom Index (AFI), academic freedom plunged in 50 of the 179 countries examined over the past decade, registering improvements in only nine. Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Bank and Ukraine are among the six places categorised as “severely restricted”. The lowest category, “completely restricted”, comprises nations including Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, Turkiye, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Gaza. “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,” the report said, according to PTI.
UGC Deployed as Primary Vehicle for State Influence: Report
It also claimed that the ruling party, BJP, kept using 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 vice-chancellors and accelerating the casualisation of academic labour by removing the 10 per cent cap on non-permanent, contract faculty,” it said.
India’s AFI score has plummeted steeply in recent years, from 0.38 in 2022 to 0.14 in 2025.
However, the decline is not limited to India, but has been reported in 50 of 179 countries, with academic freedom witnessing a significant dip over the past decade.
In the United States, institutional autonomy fell from 3.3 in 2019 to 1.7 in 2025, with the score dropping from 2.4 in 2024 alone.
Faculty Firings, Campus Protests, Government Curbs: Report Flags Growing Threats to Academic Freedom
The report mentioned numerous recent instances of “suppressing dissent” among faculty members.
For example, it spotlighted 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 referenced 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 uploaded a series of WhatsApp statuses 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.” Soon after, her phone number and picture went viral on social media, sparking online hate and death threats. The university suspended her on May 8 and terminated her services on December 9, 2025.
“When universities justified event cancellations, they often pointed to the content of the event or extramural statements made by the invited speakers. 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,” the report said.
The report also said that national and state government actors adopted measures that constrained freedom of research, teaching and publication.
Sharing an instance, it said the Supreme Court issued a “life ban” on March 11, 2026, barring three academics from receiving public funding for curriculum development. The case revolves around three scholars who partnered with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on the Class 8 social science textbook, containing a section on “Corruption in Judiciary”. The court took suo motu action regarding the contents, issued show-cause notices to those concerned, and even announced a blanket ban on its production and distribution.
(With PTI Inputs)
