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 September 1-30, 2025.

International media reports

Time, US, September 11

M. Rajshekhar assesses the threat posed to the Great Nicobar Island by the Modi government’s plans to construct “a container port, an airport, a township, a tourism project, and a power plant” in moves to “transform the island into a bustling commercial hub”. Rajshekhar writes that the project will “decimate” hundreds of species, rainforest, and the indigenous communities of the island. Scholars have warned that the Shompen tribe will “face genocide”. The island is located on top of an active seismic faultline with the threat of earthquakes and tsunamis.  Rajshekhar indicates that the government is downplaying the ecological and human risks, and “muzzling criticism” by local leaders, environmentalists, and the press. 

Anupreeta Das and Hari Kumar examine India’s foreign policy ambitions in its “backyard”, in the context of political upheavals in Nepal (2025), Sri Lanka (2022), and Bangladesh (2024). They argue that India risks losing its “traditional sphere of influence” in South Asia, as China steadily expands its presence through infrastructure projects, trade, and political engagement. Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst and senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, points out that India “can’t afford to be complacent and conclude that neighbors’ negative sentiment toward India is neutralised by their need for Indian support”. Husain Haqqani, former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, adds that India’s pursuit of regional dominance, coupled with “the staunch Hindu nationalism of Mr. Modi” and a “jingoistic domestic media”, risks alienating religious groups in South Asian countries. 

DW, Germany, September 22

Murali Krishnan writes on the implications for press freedom in India after a Delhi court recently issued gag orders to restrict nine journalists and digital platforms from publishing content on the Adani Group deemed “defamatory or unverified”. Lawyer Nakul Gandhi states that the ex parte nature of the order sets a "troubling precedent” and “violates constitutional free speech protections”. Subsequently, another Delhi court quashed the gag order on a challenge brought by four journalists on grounds that “they had not been given a chance to defend themselves before being silenced”. An international report described a sharp deterioration of press freedom in India, "the media, considered a major stakeholder in the world's largest democracy, has been shackled and subjected to a systemic strategy to cripple it”. 

The Guardian, UK, September 25

Hannah Ellis Petersen highlights the prolonged five-year long detention without trial of Umar Khalid, whom Peterson describes as “India’s most prominent political prisoner, to many a potent symbol of the systematic crushing of dissent under the dominant Hindu nationalist regime of the prime minister, Narendra Modi”. Amnesty International and other rights groups call for his immediate release condemning his “continued unjust detention without trial”. Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty India, said, “Khalid’s detention is not an isolated case and is emblematic of a broader pattern of repression faced by those who dare to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly”. 

Financial Times, UK, September 30

Veena Venugopal calls 2025 “the worst” for Narendra Modi in his 11 years as Prime Minister, “with both external and internal events contributing to a general souring in his popularity”. Venugopal points to the government’s handling of recent protests in Ladakh, Modi’s lack of influence over Trump resulting in India being exposed to the highest economic tariffs as well as the US “cosying up to Pakistan”, and an increasingly “wobbly economy”. She says the “most marked change” is Modi’s less visible popularity online, when he previously could “command ringing support on social media, no matter the issue”. 

Indian diaspora and civil society groups

On September 22, International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India) and London Mining Network held the fifth session of the ‘Deadline or Death Sentence: State Violence and Indigenous (Adivasi) People’s Resistance in India’ collaborative webinar series. Speaker Dayamani Barla (social activist and Convenor, Adivasi–Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manch, Jharkhand) stressed that it is indigenous communities that made barren lands arable and ready for human settlement. Barla described the various ways in which the Modi government is diluting Adivasi lands and their rights, particularly through digitization of land records and other tactics. Speaker CR Bijoy, who engages in issues of resource conflict and governance in India, discussed how law is being weaponized to take land and resources from Adivasi and forest-dwelling communities, through amendments in mining, environment, forest and wildlife conservation, and biodiversity laws. 

InSAF India along with The Polis Project, SADAC, and Boston South Asia Coalition hosted a webinar on September 26 addressing the recent Government of India ban of 25 books in Kashmir. Among the speakers were authors whose books were banned. Veteran journalist Anuradha Bhasin noted that by declaring books as illegal, a broader public culture of discussion and knowledge formation is threatened. Bhasin also noted the systematic vacuum created post-2019 by incarcerating members of Kashmiri civil society and preventing independent journalism. Anthropologist Ather Zia highlighted how this vacuum is being replaced by reductive, army-aligned re-writings of the history of Kashmir. A Kashmiri student noted that the ban affects students’ relationship to knowledge, depriving researchers of crucial resources. Lawyer and writer Suchitra Vijayan linked the ban to the state’s control of public narratives and the replacement of legal categories by ideological ones. Mythri Jegathesan highlighted the transnational ramifications of book bans. 

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances released a report on September 3 examining the "alarming global trend of enforced disappearances targeting individuals defending land, natural resources, and the environment (LNRE defenders)”.  On India, the report notes that the “Bastar region is a hotbed of enforced disappearance and human rights violations due to mineral exploitation and heavy militarisation. Adivasi communities in India reportedly face significant oppression, with LNRE defenders often being detained under fabricated charges or killed.” The report was officially presented to the Human Rights Council. 

Christophe Jaffrelot, Senior Research Fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, analyses recent changes in India’s relationship with China, published on September 4, in which he describes India’s dependence leading it “to submit to Chinese domination”, despite China having conceded so little on border disputes and its growing support for Pakistan. Jaffrelot argues that the Indian economy is “increasingly dependent on Chinese imports” to ensure its own production, from “electronic, electrical or automotive spare parts, active ingredients for drug and vaccine manufacturers, or computers”. Additionally, he points to China’s military superiority leading India to “resign” itself to greater Chinese encroachments on Indian territory. 

A joint statement released on September 12 by Amnesty International, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, FORUM-ASIA, Front Line Defenders, International Commission for Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organisation Against Torture calls for the “immediate and unconditional release of human rights defender and student activist Umar Khalid. The groups describe Khalid’s prolonged detention “emblematic of a broader pattern of repression faced by those who dare to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association”. They call attention to other students and human rights activists incarcerated while “police officials and political leaders responsible for incitement or complicity in violence continue to enjoy impunity”. The statement demands equal application of bail standards, accountability of officials implicated in violence, and the repeal or amendment of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to align with international human rights law.  

On September 24, Amnesty International published a short analysis of the recently enacted Immigration and Foreigners Order 2025, which grants the Government of India “sweeping powers” relating to foreigners in India. Amnesty says the Order will result in “censorship, unlawful detention and deportations” and calls for its repeal as it contravenes international human rights laws and standards. 

Amnesty International released a press release on September 25 calling for an investigation into the use of lethal force against protestors in Leh, Ladakh. Four people died and over 50 were injured after police opened fire on protestors on September 24. Aakar Patel, Amnesty International India’s Chair of Board, called for “the immediate de-escalation of tensions” and urged the government to “respect people’s rights.” Amnesty demands an immediate investigation into the police’s use of lethal force against “protestors that were largely peaceful”. Protests in Ladakh have been on since 2021 demanding statehood and the region’s inclusion in the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. 

Read the previous roundup here. 

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