Resources
Tables/data sets/scholarly articles/reports that document threats to Academic Freedom
See article published:
Ajay Skaria, ‘Gaza and the Unsettling Equality of Academic Freedom' |
See article published: Ajay Skaria, ‘Gaza and the Unsettling Equality of Academic Freedom' |
TABLES
Six tables that tell the story of academic unfreedom in India. Maintained by Team IAFN
The Indian Academic Freedom Network presents the following tables to help readers get a quick overview of the decline in academic freedom in India. We have tried to record all incidents that we could find in national English newspapers or news portals, irrespective of the political affiliation of the groups infringing academic freedom.
These tables are an updated, expanded version of the annexures first prepared in June 2020 by Nandini Sundar and Gowhar Fazili as part of a status report in response to a call for submissions on academic freedom by the UN Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
The contents of these tables are based on research and inputs by Sumit Kumar and Rajat Sonkar (2020); Ananya Redkar (2021); Mohona Chaudhuri, Madiha Iqbal, and Uttam Kumar (2022); Ateen Das, Saniya Rizwan, and Arul Singh (2023); and Ashwin Thomas, Tulip Bannerjee, Samra Iqbal, and Vedant Nagrani (2024).
Please note that the entries are not exhaustive but merely illustrative. Readers are encouraged to fill any gaps that they notice by emailing indiaacademicfreedom@gmail.com.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
IN INDIA
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES ON
Supriya Chaudhuri, ‘The University in New India: A State of Siege’, Social Research: An International Quarterly 92, no. 2 (2025): 447-476. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sor.2025.a961487.
Mohona Chaudhuri and Thomas Mathew, ‘The Unmaking and Making of the Social Sciences in Contemporary India’, Communications 114, no. 1 (2024): 89-101. Access the complete article here.
ACADEMIC
FREEDOM
PRINCIPLES OF
Further Resources
Lewandowsky, Stephan, Vera Kempe, Konstantinos Armaos, Ulrike Hahn, Christoph M. Abels, Susilo Wibisono, Winnifred Louis et al., The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding (2025). Click here
Principles for Implementing Academic Freedom 2024 (Human Rights Council) Click here
AAUP Statement on Academic Boycotts (August 2024): Click here
Joint Declaration on Academic Freedom, Intervention de la France Genève, 29 March 2023: Click here
REPORTS ON
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Free to Think (Scholars at Risk’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project)
Click here to view all reports
Academic Freedom Index: V-Dem Project
Click here to view all reports
SAIH, Activism Under Attack Report 2024. Click here to view earlier reports
Education Under Attack 2024, Report by Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack.
Kirsten Roberts Lyer and Aron Suba, Closing Academic Space, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, March 2019. Click here
Network of Concerned Historians, Annual Report 2024 . Click here to view earlier reports.
Ajay Skaria, ‘Gaza and the Unsettling Equality of Academic Freedom,’ Critical Times 8, no. 1 (2025): 33-84. Click here to access
Judith Butler, ‘Academic Freedom in a Time of Destruction: Reconsidering Extramural Speech’, Social Research: An International Quarterly 92, no. 2 (2025): 407-446. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sor.2025.a961486.
Nicholas B. Dirks, ‘Among the Ruins of the University’, Social Research: An International Quarterly 92, no. 2 (2025): 477-502. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sor.2025.a961488.
Dheepa Sundaram, ‘An Academic Conference, A Bomb Threat, and A Title VI Complaint: U.S. Hindu Nationalist Groups' Litigious Assault on Academic Freedom’, Drexel Law Review 16, no. 4 (2024). Click here to access
miscellaneous
ARTICLES