The Narendra Modi government frequently posits India as a ‘Vishwaguru’ or world leader. How the world sees India is often lost in this branding exercise.

Outside India, global voices are monitoring and critiquing human rights violations in India and the rise of Hindutva. We present here monthly highlights of what a range of actors – from UN experts and civil society groups to international media and parliamentarians of many countries – are saying about the state of India’s democracy.

Read the monthly roundup for November 1-30, 2025.

International media reports

Sunday Times, Sri Lanka, November 2

​​Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene responds to India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s recent remarks that “weak governance” had led to “regime change” in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, while he hailed Narendra Modi’s “governance model”. She writes that such “verbal excesses only antagonise countries that have, with good reason, long accused their ‘big brother’ of ‘interfering’ with their internal political dynamics”. While acknowledging governance in Sri Lanka is “far from being healthy”, Pinto-Jayawardene recasts Modi’s “governance model” as better described as a “model of authoritarianism” akin to a “Donald Trump model of governance”. 

CNN, US, November 16

Esha Mitra reports on the cancellation of a seminar by the administration of Delhi University “on the same day it issued a directive to staff to promote a summit on cow welfare”. The topic of the cancelled seminar was “Land, Property and Democratic Rights” which was to be delivered by Namita Wahi, the founding director of the Lands Rights Initiative, “a longtime critic of the Modi government’s use of land laws to acquire property for various projects in contravention of community land rights”. Delhi University professors and students said “the directive is another example of the pressures places on educational institutions by the Modi government”. 

Abhishek Dey writes about fears experienced by migrant workers, living in Delhi, regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) initiated in November 2025. The SIR is a sweeping program to “revise electoral lists across 12 states and federally administered regions” covering “nearly 510 million voters”. Migrant fears include the “extra costs and lost wages” of unplanned trips to their homes and linked concerns about losing their jobs in Delhi. Migrant workers from West Bengal face an added fear of being asked to prove their citizenship based on the suspicion of being Bangladeshi.  Although there are certain provisions including for the SIR form to be filled online, most migrant workers interviewed said they were either unfamiliar with the process or found it "too risky".

Indian diaspora and civil society groups

Marking his incarceration of 1200 days by October 2025, InSAF India released an article dated November 7 on how the targeting of Jharkhand-based Hindi journalist Rupesh Kumar “clearly points to state repression for his pro-people reporting”. In the midst of his personal difficulties and legal fight, InSAF describes that Rupesh continuously advocates for improved living conditions inside prison and “raises his voice against the violence and degradation faced by incarcerated people”. They stress that Rupesh’s extended family, “especially his spouse Ipsa Shatakshi and their son who was only five years old at the time of his father’s incarceration, have been as much victims of his unjust incarceration as Rupesh himself”. English translations of some of Rupesh's work are being prepared and will be linked to the article. 

A group of international organisations including, among others, Front anti-imperialiste (France), Insaf India, Lal Morich, Portland Antiimperialist Action Revolutionary Marxist Study Group (US), RSO-Berkeley,  RSO-Davis, RSO-Santa Cruz, Supernova Revue Marxixte Lèniniste (France), The Editorial Board of The Worker, and Right to Rebel SATX, San Antonio, Texas,  and several Indian civil society organisations, released a joint statement on November 9, marking “100 days of the unlawful imprisonment” of activist Priyanshu Kashyap, and demanding his immediate release. The signatories deem the “entire process” of Kashyap’s arrest and detention as “in violation of the due process and rights guaranteed under the constitution.”

Experts say

Arman Ahmed, a researcher of geopolitics and international relations, analyses “a dangerous symmetry” that is emerging between India and Bangladesh, in a piece published on November 17. After Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarianism compromised “the moral authority of its secular project”, Bangladesh saw a rise of Islamic politics, which is now being intensified by India’s “majoritarian nationalism”. The “anger and anxiety” caused by invocations of "Hindurashtra" and "Bangladeshi infiltrators" feeds into the larger feeling - “if India is unashamedly Hindu, why should Bangladesh not be proudly Muslim?” Ahmed underlines that South Asia’s “delicate balance” is being corroded by “Hindutva's triumphalism” since “majoritarianism, like any ideology of exclusion, is contagious”.

A group of United Nations experts “expressed alarm about serious human rights violations committed by Indian authorities following the 22 April 2025 terrorist attack in Pahalgam” in a press release dated November 24. These include reported arbitrary arrests, suspicious deaths in custody, torture, punitive house demolitions, suspension of mobile internet services, and the blocking of around 8,000 social media accounts. The experts also noted violations in other states, including Kashmiri students being subjected to surveillance and harassment and increased hate speech and incitement to violence against Muslims “inflamed by political figures in the ruling party”. The experts warned that “excessive counter-terrorism measures” can “fuel social division and grievances that can spiral into further violence”.

Anuradha Bhasin, managing editor of the Kashmir Times, writes a strong rebuttal published on November 25, following a raid of the Kashmir Times office by the State Investigation Agency of Jammu & Kashmir on charges of criminal conspiracy and spreading “terrorist ideology”. Bhasin states, “we completely reject these allegations as false, politically motivated, and fabricated. This action is yet another attempt to discredit us, malign our image, and silence us”. Seeing the raid as symptomatic of a broader crackdown on press freedom, Bhasin says both India and Pakistan have created an “enabling atmosphere for suppressing and crushing independent media in the region”. 

On November 26, Amnesty International released two reports - Stitched Up: Denial of Freedom of Association for Garment Workers in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and Abandoned by Fashion: The Urgent Need for Fashion Brands to Champion Worker Rights evidencing that the “global garment industry is profiting from the continued repression of garment workers and abuse of their labor rights in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka”. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s Secretary General, calls it “an unholy alliance” between fashion brands, factory owners, and governments “in the relentless pursuit of profits for the shareholders of largely western fashion companies.” In India, the report demonstrates, for instance, how vast numbers of home workers in the garment industry “are not recognised as employees under the country’s labor laws and thus, are not eligible for pensions, other employment-related social protection benefits or union membership”. 

Foundation Diaspora in Action for Human Rights and Democracy (DAHRD), an Indian diaspora organisation based in the Netherlands, released a report that “documents a coordinated campaign of anti-Muslim hate speech across official Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) social media channels and affiliated Hindutva networks in the months preceding Bihar's 2025 Assembly elections”.  The report is based on analysis of 211 social media pages and groups. It finds that the platforms it studied were used to spread hate speech “to systematically dehumanize Muslims as rats, dogs, infiltrators, and foreign invaders”, among other harmful effects. While Meta’s own policies prohibit hate speech, such content remained online, with DAHRD concluding that “Meta’s sustained indifference and non-enforcement of its own policies in India, its largest global market, continues”. 

Germanwatch, an independent development, environmental, and human rights organisation, released the Climate Risk Index 2026, which ranks countries “by the human and economic toll of extreme weather”. The 2026 Index ranks India 9th globally, based on data from 1995–2024. Over those 30 years, India experienced around “430 extreme weather events (storms, heatwaves, floods), resulting in 80,000 deaths, 1.3 billion people affected, and losses of $170 billion”. The Index report warns that without more long-term climate support and adaptation funding; India’s repeated exposure will make recovery increasingly difficult. 

In its Freedom On the Net 2025 report, Freedom House finds that global internet freedom has declined for the 15th consecutive year. India remains classified as “partly free”, ranking 51st, with online censorship, internet shutdowns, and surveillance restricting digital rights. The report also highlights a surge in manipulated online narratives and data privacy risks, citing repeated breaches of India’s Aadhaar system. 

Read the previous roundup here. 

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