Scholars at Risk's Free to Think 2026 report kept India in the "severely restricted" category for academic freedom, alongside Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Bank and Ukraine. India's Academic Freedom Index (AFI) score dropped from 0.41 in 2015 to 0.14 in 2026; the AFI assesses campus integrity, academic expression, research and teaching freedom and institutional autonomy. The report logged 382 attacks in 59 countries and territories between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, with India recording the most, 42 cases of violence, imprisonment or loss of position. It said 50 of 179 countries saw a significant decline over the past decade.