Academic Freedom and Higher Education in India Continues to Face Attacks on Multiple Fronts

Students gathered at Pondicherry University, calling for administrative sanctions against professor accused of sexual harassment, October 9, 2025. Photo credit: Maktoob Media.

Academic freedom is rapidly deteriorating in India. On the Academic Freedom Index, the country’s score has fallen from 0.66 in 2012 to 0.16 in 2024, the last year reported in the index. In the last few months, as well, from courses and events to student and faculty expression, higher education in India has been facing attacks on multiple fronts. While the offensive is headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Narendra Modi, non-governmental actors, such as university administrations, are also advancing the broader agenda of exerting political control over Indian academia.

As is the case around the world, students are facing the brunt of these attacks in the shape of the repression of student protests and activism. On October 9, 2025, police attacked around 200 students from Pondicherry University who gathered to demand that their university suspend a faculty member who had allegedly sexually harassed 20 to 30 female students. 24 students were detained by the police. On November 10, 2025, students at Panjab University were attacked by police with batons during their protest against a proposal of the central government to reduce the autonomy of the institution and increase governmental control over it. University administrations are also placing restrictions on student protests on their campuses. Jamia Millia Islamia University issued show cause notices to students for participating in what the university described as an “unauthorized gathering.” A student lost their eyesight due to an injury sustained during the police crackdown on the protest. Last week, Delhi University also introduced a month-long temporary ban on all on-campus protests and gatherings, citing disruptions caused by repeated protests, some for and some against, the introduction of new regulations intended to prevent caste-based discrimination, among other forms of discrimination.

Faculty speech is also being targeted. On December 5, 2025, Lora Santhakumar, professor at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) in Chennai, India, was fired for sharing anti-war messages on social media during the military conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025. Santhakumar said that she was put through a “wrongful suspension, illegal and partial enquiry process as well as unfair termination which led to defamation” and accused the university of targeting her for her Dalit Christian identity.

This narrowing field of expression is also impacting the classroom in direct ways, leading to new additional restrictions on what can and cannot be taught. In late December 2025, the standing committee of the academic council of Delhi University sent back the proposed curricula of the Economics and History Departments for revisions. The objection of the standing committee was based on the arguments that inclusion of topics such as gender and discriminated were not centrally related to the study of economics and that the history curriculum should cover Indian history more instead of global history. The standing committee had also previously asked the Department of Political Science to remove topics such as “religious nationalism” and “the politics of the RSS” (the RSS, “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,” is the paramilitary wing of the ruling right-wing BJP). Apoorvanand Jha, professor in the Department of Hindi at the University of Delhi and columnist for The Wire, said that this pattern of intervention suggests an underlying motivation to align university curricula with the right-wing Hindutva ideology of the BJP. In another case, at Jamia Millia Islamia University, a professor from the Department of Social Work was suspended for asking students to “discuss the atrocities against Muslim minorities in India” in a final examination.

Academic events are also being targeted as part of this wave of restrictions on teaching and learning. On January 20, 2026, a guest lecture by Kedar Mishra, an artist, writer, scholar, and vocal critic of the BJP government, was canceled after the BJP-controlled state government, in coordination with the central government, pressured the university to have the event canceled. Another guest speaker was similarly uninvited from an event at Mumbai University, a day before the event was scheduled to take place, claiming that their invitation was rescinded by a senior university official because of his open criticism of the government. At the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, an investigation was launched about an event that was held on January 16-18, 2025, on the topic of caste and race in India. Following criticism from some professors, ranging from those questioning the place of such topics in a technical institute to others arguing that posing questions such as “What is common between Dalits and Palestinians?” constitutes an act of “overt political signaling.” But obstacles do not end at the boundaries of university campuses. On February 12, 2026, a bucket of water was thrown at historian S Irfan Habib while speaking to an audience of students at Delhi University as part of the People’s Literature Festival organized by the All India Students’ Association (AISA). While the individual behind the act remains unidentified, the AISA claimed that members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a right-wing student organization connected with the RSS and the BJP. The ABVP denied involvement. The ABVP was involved, however, in an incident last month. At Lucknow University, members of the ABVP confronted and clashed with another student group organizing a commemoration and march to mark the 10^th anniversary of the death of a PhD student and Dalit rights activist who committed suicide in 2016.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) is deeply concerned about the series of attacks on Indian higher education, targeting freedom to research, teach, and share academic knowledge. We condemn the efforts of the BJP government to punish students for protest activity and put pressure on academic events at universities featuring government critics. We further condemn the actions of university administrations intended to introduce political restrictions on classroom instruction and call on Indian universities to resist the national-level attack on academic freedom in India. We invite the global community to join our call.