Human rights in India in 2025: ‘Highlights’ of the year so far

At the end of every year, the organisation I represent puts out a report on human rights in India. This is part of Amnesty International’s global assessment, which focuses on violations mostly, though not exclusively, by states around the world.

I was going through the draft of this year’s report, which is updated to September 2025, and thought readers would be interested to know where we stand. This will be a list of highlights, or — to be more accurate — a list of rock-bottom low points.

In January 2025, Uttarakhand passed rules enforcing a Uniform Civil Code. It mandates the registration of all live-in relationships, with the state authorities supposedly to combat religious conversions via fraudulent marriages. The rules were passed without considering a report on the rules from a nine-member panel appointed by the government.

In February 2025, Rajasthan introduced a Bill criminalising consensual inter-faith marriages that involved conversion and proposed 10 years in jail for those Muslims marrying Hindus and vice versa. Maharashtra passed a resolution aimed at blocking inter-faith marriage as well.

Also in the same month, the Malvan Municipal Corporation demolished the scrap shop belonging to the father of a minor boy accused of saying something after India’s win against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy cricket match.

In March 2025, the Maharashtra police filed an FIR against Kunal Kamra in connection with his stand-up comedy show called Naya Bharat (‘New India’). Violence against the venue followed. This was but one of a series of episodes where freedom of expression, a fundamental right, was abused by the state.

The previous month, for instance, the Delhi police had detained 12 students of Jamia Milia Islamia university who were protesting against the show-cause notices issued to two PhD students for allegedly sloganeering ‘without permission or intimation to university authorities‘ in 2024.

Also in March 2025, the Assam state police arrested journalist Dilwar Hussain Mozumdar for reporting on a protest over alleged financial misconduct at a bank run by the state government. He had consistently reported on financial issues at the bank — where the state’s chief minister is a director.

In April 2025 came an FIR against folk singer Neha Singh Rathore in Lucknow, for her comment on the militant attacks in Pahalgam that killed 26 people.

In May 2025, India cancelled the OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) status of British-Kashmiri academic Nitasha Kaul. She has regularly spoken against the rising authoritarianism in India.

Also in May 2025, the Nagpur police filed an FIR against three people, including Pushpa Sathidar, the wife of late activist Vira Sathidar, for reciting the poem ‘Hum dekhenge’ by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Haryana Police registered two FIRs against Ali Khan Mahmudabad, associate professor at Ashoka University, over social media posts on Operation Sindoor.

The Nagpur police arrested 26-year-old Rejaz M. Siddique for allegedly insulting Operation Sindoor on Instagram; he was subsequently charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Between 22 April and 8 May, the Association of Protection of Civil Rights documented at least 184 hate crimes targeting Muslims after the Pahalgam attack.

In June 2025, India withheld the Instagram account of the Savala Vada, a satirical meme page inspired by the Onion. Then the Mumbai police detained 19 people who had gathered at Azad Maidan to join a rally in support of Palestinians.

In July 2025, India ordered X (formerly Twitter) to block more than 2,000 accounts, including two belonging to the Reuters news agency.

Also in July came the Maharashtra Special Public Security Act, which criminalises dissent on pretext of public safety.

In August 2025, the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir banned 25 books written by journalists, historians, feminists and scholars of peace, accusing them of ‘glorifying terrorism and inciting violence’.

Also in August, the Guwahati Police summoned journalists Siddharth Varadarajan and Karan Thapar in connection with a sedition case, without sharing any details.

The next month, September 2025, a court in Gandhinagar issued notice to journalists Abhisaar Sharma and Raju Parulekar for reporting on the sale of a vast area of land to the Adani group for a small amount in Assam.

Our torture of the vulnerable also proceeded apace all this year.

In May 2025, 40 Rohingyas were blindfolded and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and then thrown into the sea and made to swim to an island in Myanmar.

And after the Pahalgam attack, at least 300 Muslims were ‘pushed back’ to Bangladesh from Assam.

Also in May, Assam announced that it would provide arms licences to people, especially those in Muslim-majority districts.

In the first half of July 2025, some 1,800 families were left homeless after Assam carried out an eviction drive in Goalpara. Most of those affected were Muslims. In the second half of July, Assam launched a large-scale eviction drive in Uriamghat, largely populated by Muslims, to ‘reclaim’ over 11,000 bighas of forest land. The drive was halted by the Supreme Court on account of multiple violations of due process.

In September 2025, India repealed four earlier laws and now classifies asylum seekers as ’illegal migrants’.

We are still only in October 2025, and there will be more to follow, of course.

All year — and for several years now — Umar Khalid and other Muslim student activists have remained in pre-trial detention for their alleged involvement in the February 2020 North-east Delhi violence that claimed the lives of 53 people; 38 of them were Muslims.

The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also puts out a similar report, and he said:

India’s response to this concern was to put out a story on Doordarshan whose headline was 'India slams UN Human Rights for unfounded and baseless comment on Kashmir and Manipur’.

Views are personal. More of Aakar Patel’s writing may be read here