India now ranks 156th out of 179 countries in the 2025 Academic Freedom Index. Its score dropped from 0.38 in 2022 to 0.16, placing it in the worst 10-20 per cent range.
According to the V-Dem Institute's most recent finding, the electoral success of anti-pluralist parties is "a potential driver of academic freedom decline".
"Drawing on data over a period of 50 years, we show that academic freedom is at risk when anti-pluralist parties reach government," according to the report.
Among its neighbours, India was among the worst performers, ranking only above China in the bottom 10 per cent, The Wire reports.
While Bangladesh was in the same bracket as India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan were in the top 30-40 per cent, with Sri Lanka in the top 40-50 per cent.
According to the research, anti-pluralist parties lacked commitment to democratic procedures, legitimacy of political opponents, opposition to political violence, and respect for minority rights.
Such parties "deepen differences between political camps, reduce the space for public contestation, and undermine mutual forbearance."
“Consequently, one would expect that anti-pluralist political parties undermine not only freedom of information and expression in general but also academic freedom specifically,” the report said.
The data cited in the research demonstrated that governments in nations with complete academic freedom rarely made anti-pluralist claims.
Government parties in nations with significant or complete limits on academic freedom, on the other hand, made extensive use of anti-pluralist rhetoric.
The V-Dem Institute's AFI ranks countries based on five criteria, namely, freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, campus integrity, and freedom of academic and cultural expression.
According to the report, 34 countries and territories have witnessed a "statistically significant and substantially meaningful decline in academic freedom compared to ten years ago" — India is among them.
