'India an Example of Shrinking Academic Freedom': New Report

New Delhi: As many as 395 attacks on higher education communities across the world were recorded across 49 countries and territories between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025 – and India has become an example of how academic freedom is shrinking. 

These are among the findings recorded by Scholars at Risk (SAR), an international network of over 650 universities and thousands of academics across 40 countries in its new report, 'Free to Think 2025'.

Scholars at Risk’s new report warns of a global crisis in academic freedom, with both authoritarian and democratic governments undermining universities through violent crackdowns, forced disappearances, restrictive policies, and political interference; once typical of autocracies, now increasingly visible in democracies like the United States.

“National leaders have systematically attacked the higher education sector’s ability to foster independent thought and critique power,” said Robert Quinn, SAR’s executive director. “From Afghanistan to Serbia to the United States, state leaders have cracked down on student and faculty expression, banned the study of disfavoured topics, and targeted individual scholars and students for what they teach, study, or say.”

Where does India stand?

The report states that India has become a key example of how academic freedom is shrinking, with universities and political groups limiting free expression on campuses.

Many universities now require prior approval for protests, discussions, or slogans, while police have cracked down on student demonstrations. Violence has also risen: At Sri Venkateswara University, Professor Chengaiah, a Dalit rights advocate, was beaten by Hindu nationalist groups who accused him of promoting Christianity. At Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), officials canceled seminars with Middle Eastern diplomats and dismissed the seminar coordinator. In Udaipur, members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh disrupted a film festival, forcing its cancellation. These incidents highlight the growing political pressure and intolerance faced by Indian universities.

Violent crackdowns

Some of the most harrowing examples came from Bangladesh, where student-led protests against a government job quota system were met with “brutal, systematic repression", according to the United Nations. Thousands were injured, and as many as 1,400 people, many of them students, were killed. The movement ultimately forced the resignation of the prime minister, but at an immense human cost.

In Pakistan, SAR documented a disturbing pattern of enforced disappearances of Baloch student activists by security forces. In Serbia, students protesting government corruption faced a different kind of punishment: public smear campaigns, threats to defund public universities, and withheld salaries for faculty members who supported the demonstrations.

Restricting campus expression

Even in democracies, repression has taken subtler but still corrosive forms. In India, several universities banned student demonstrations deemed “anti-establishment,” effectively silencing critical voices. In the United States, after pro-Palestinian protests swept campuses in 2024, many universities introduced strict new rules: requiring advance registration for demonstrations, banning encampments, and imposing harsher penalties on protesting students.

SAR warned that these so-called “time, place, and manner” rules risk being applied arbitrarily and inconsistently, becoming tools to suppress dissent rather than manage campus life.

The US in the spotlight

While authoritarian states remain the epicentre of violent crackdowns, the United States has emerged as a focus for what SAR called “unprecedented” federal interference. Since January 2025, after president Donald Trump’s return to office, Washington has rolled out sweeping executive orders, legislative actions, and extralegal measures aimed at reshaping higher education.

These include:

• Cancelling research grants on ideological grounds.
• Attempting to detain and deport non-citizen scholars without due process.
• Eliminating programs focused on diversity, gender, environment, and equity.
• Slashing budgets and cutting personnel.
• Handing over research grant evaluations from experts to political appointees.

“Recent actions by the United States government mark the first time a research and innovation superpower has voluntarily dismantled the infrastructure underpinning its global leadership,” Quinn said. “These actions also undermine American democracy itself. Universities are incubators of democratic values; that’s why they are among the first targets of attack in places experiencing democratic decline.”

The repercussions are global. International students are increasingly reluctant to choose the US as a study destination, while universities in Europe, Asia, and Africa are moving to attract displaced American scholars. Meanwhile, US research budget cuts have disrupted projects as far afield as Egypt, Portugal, South Africa, and Australia.

Global patterns

SAR’s findings align with the 2025 Academic Freedom Index, which reported deteriorating conditions in 36 of 179 countries, including India, Russia, Turkey, Germany, and the United States. Ten countries; including Afghanistan, China, and Iran, were rated “completely restricted.” Another eight, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe, were categorised as “severely restricted.”

The report also warns against misreading declining numbers of reported incidents in countries such as Myanmar or Nicaragua as signs of improvement. In reality, fewer reports often reflect harsher repression: shuttered universities, scholars in exile, heightened self-censorship, and media blackouts that make documentation nearly impossible.

A call to action

For SAR, the implications are stark. Defending universities, the report argues, is inseparable from defending democracy itself. “Attacks on higher education not only imperil the lives, careers, and wellbeing of scholars and students, they chip away at the foundations of a free society,” Quinn said.

Clare Robinson, SAR’s advocacy director, framed the crisis as both urgent and an opportunity. “Protecting higher education requires the sector to take three steps: better communicate the value of academic freedom to the public, reject isolationism and build solidarity with their peers, and secure formal legal protections for academic freedom and autonomy,” she said.

SAR urges governments and universities to adopt the 'Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom', released in 2024, as a roadmap for reform. “Critical discourse is not disloyalty,” Robinson concluded. “Ideas are not crimes. Everyone must be free to think, question, and share their ideas.”

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