Resources
See reports section below to access presentations from BASAS symposium
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See reports section below to access presentations from BASAS symposium |
Tables/Data Sets/Scholarly Articles/Reports That Document Threats to Academic Freedom
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TABLES
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.
The contents of these tables are based on research and inputs by Nandini Sundar (2018, 2020), 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); Ashwin Thomas, Tulip Bannerjee, Samra Iqbal, and Vedant Nagrani (2024); and Lavanya Senthil and Vedant Nagrani (2025 onwards).
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.
These tables were first published on The Wire
In addition, record of Hindutva events, seminars and lectures on college campuses may be found on the Campus Notes page.
Six tables that tell the story of academic unfreedom in India. Maintained by Team IAFN
Click on the headings below to access updated tables
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES ON
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
IN INDIA
Sruti Bala, Laila Kadiwal, Ashok Kumbamu & Aninthitha Nath, ‘Ideas Behind Bars: The Carceral State and Struggles for Academic Freedom in India', Globalisation, Societies and Education 24, no. 1 (2026): 42-60, https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2025.2482230. Click here to view the complete article.
Nandini Sundar, ‘Inside Modi’s Assault on Academic Freedom’, Journal of Democracy 37, no. 1 (January 2026): 70–79. Click here to view the complete article.
Siddharth Saxena, ‘Instrumentalizing the University: The Principles Underlying Higher Education Regulation At India’s Founding’, Indian Law Review (August 2025): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/24730580.2025.2540132
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.
Nandini Sundar and Gowhar Fazili, ‘Academic Freedom in India’, The India Forum, 4 September, 2020. Access the complete article here.
Rohan D’Souza, ‘Citizen, Consumer, User: Covid 19 and the Higher Education Churn in India’, The JMC Review 4 (2020). Click here to access the complete article.
Nandini Sundar, ‘Academic Freedom and Indian Universities’, EPW 53, no. 24 (16 June 2018). Click here to access the complete article.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Principles of
“For academic freedom to exist in any meaningful sense it must be respected, protected, ensured and promoted by the public authorities. A state has legal obligations with respect to academic freedom, and any failure to fulfil its obligations amounts to a violation of academic freedom.”
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 herePrinciples for Implementing Academic Freedom 2024 (Human Rights Council) Click hereAAUP Statement on Academic Boycotts (August 2024): Click hereJoint Declaration on Academic Freedom, Intervention de la France Genève, 29 March 2023: Click hereAAUP Statement on Institutional Neutrality, February 2025. Click hereInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Click hereInter-American Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy. Click hereAcademic Freedom as a Fundamental Right, LERU, December 2010. Click hereREPORTS 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
The British Association for South Asian Studies (BASAS) organized a symposium in December 2025 on attacks on academic freedom in South Asia. The following are reports from this symposium, click on the names to access them : Gameela Samarasinghe on Sri Lanka | Mirza Hassan & Aishwarya Sanjukta Roy Proma on Bangladesh | Aasim Sajjad Akhtar on Pakistan | Interview with Filippo Osella
Legal Judgements
“A university that accepts only obedience and discourages protests and criticism would fail in its broader educational role. The role of the university is not to suppress every form of dissent, but to ensure that such expression is answered and catered to.” – Nadia vs Dr B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, 13 March 2026 | Read the complete judgement here
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
ARTICLES
miscellaneous