Independence is linked to freedom and is a meaningless word without it. A few years ago, I had surveyed the state of freedom in India as the world saw it. I had done this for one of my books but periodically I revisit this list of indices to see what changes have come.

On Independence Day I thought it would be apposite to do this. Some of the organisations referred to here may be unfamiliar to readers but they are reputable and their findings are respected. We shall look at what the government says about them at the end. Let us start.

The Pew Research Center is an American organisation that monitors long term trends. It reviews government restrictions and social hostilities around the world. Its latest finding is that India has high levels of the former and ‘very high’ levels of social hostilities. By 2019, India was in the top 10 in each of the followingcategories:

• Countries with high levels of social hostilities related to religious norms• Countries with high levels of inter-religious tension and violence• Countries with high levels of religious violence by organised groups• Countries with high levels of individual and social group harassment

CIVICUS is the global alliance of civil society organisations. It monitors freedom of association, of peaceful assembly and expression.In its rating India’s civic space fell from ‘Obstructed’ to ‘Repressed’.

It says that the "deterioration of India’s civic........

© National Herald