The Narendra Modi government frequently posits India as a ‘Vishwaguru’ or world leader. How the world sees India is often lost in this branding exercise.Outside India, global voices are monitoring and critiquing human rights violations in India and the rise of Hindutva. We present here monthly highlights of what a range of actors – from UN experts and civil society groups to international media and parliamentarians of many countries – are saying about the state of India’s democracy.This special edition captures voices and analyses of recent protests led by India’s youth on issues of democracy and education, which have resonated far beyond India. International media closely tracked the movement including police violence against protesters on 20 July, while diaspora groups, international civil society actors, and parliamentarians stood in solidarity with the protests, amplifying calls for accountability, justice, and democratic freedoms. Global actors reinforced how Indian youth have offered a powerful source of hope in a hostile environment. Their courage serving as a powerful reminder in India and beyond that collective action and determination can still challenge injustice.Read the usual India Globally for July here.International media reports on the protestsBBC, UK, July 1Geeta Pandey chronicles the origins of the youth-led protests “with hundreds of students, young professionals and activists” who started a sit-in protest at Delhi’s famed protest site, Jantar Mantar in June 2026, and continuing on despite temperatures above 40°C. Beginning as an “online satirical movement” led by a group called the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) over anger over exam paper leaks and student suicides quickly grew into a wider movement against unemployment, corruption, and lack of accountability. The CJP itself emerged in mid-May after Chief Justice Surya Kant described young people turning to journalism and activism as “cockroaches” and “parasites”. Protesters “insist they will not leave until (Education Minister Dharmendra) Pradhan resigns.” New York Times, US, July 20Mujib Mashal and Pragati K.B. report how police used tear gas, batons and water canons on July 20 to disperse the march to India’s Parliament of thousands of protesters, demanding Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. Lawyers on the ground approximated that over 60 protesters were arrested that day. Mashal and Pragati report that Prime Minister “tried to project an image of calm” in the July 20 session of Parliament and “did not address the protesters’ demands directly even as security forces struggled to hold back the crowds spilling onto the roads leading to the building”. The movement gained momentum over the weekend before July 20 after the police forcibly removed Sonam Wangchuk, a prominent activist who had been on hunger strike at the protest site. Al Jazeera, Qatar, July 23Vidya Krishnan argues that India’s youth-led protests have changed the country’s political mood by challenging a government many once feared. Krishnan writes that this is Narendra Modi’s “biggest crisis” as Prime Minister “and of his entire political career” as “fear has switched sides”. Instead of backing down after violent police action, protesters have become more determined, showing that satire, solidarity, and peaceful resistance can challenge entrenched political power. Krishnan highlights that the week after the police action led to a “significant escalation in the movement’s demands with students now also calling for the resignations of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah”. She describes that “the words ‘Modi must resign’ were uttered full-throatedly for the first time in 12 years”. New York Times, US, July 24Mujib Mashal reports on how India’s Gen Z driven protests are countering the Modi government’s media control through memes, videos, and “authentic outrage”. Mushal writes of an abrupt switch in Modi’s portrayal through the protests, “usually criticized only in whispers, the strongman leader has suddenly found himself the subject of jokes and taunts, with protesters defacing him on billboards and mocking him in verse, sharing the images online to an audience of millions”. Experts say the protests have broken a climate of fear. Anurag Minus Verma, a writer and social media influencer, said “because of the comfort of the crowd, now people can voice their opinion”. Joyojeet Pal, a political communications scholar at the University of Michigan, noted, “It is no longer, ‘Look what the police did,’ and it is more, ‘This is how today felt”. Financial Times, UK, July 26Michael Stott analyses the impact of the protests on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “aura pf political invincibility”. He argues the youth movement has not only “punctured” this aura, it holds “Modi personally accountable for a failure to deliver a better future”. Sushant Singh, a lecturer in South Asian studies at Yale University, commented that “a lot of this crowd voted for Modi” and they feel “betrayed” by his failure to deliver the many promises he made. Despite “high headline” economic growth, nearly 40% of young graduates remain unemployed. As Singh noted, India’s growth “has not really translated into the kind of job opportunities” young people expected.Indian diaspora and international civil society groups in solidarity Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) highlights how India’s student-led movement rapidly gained international solidarity, transforming a local protest into a global call for educational justice and democratic freedoms, in a press release dated July 25. More than 500 students and community members gathered at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in New York’s Union Square on Friday, July 24. HfHR urges the international community to stand with students, while condemning repression of dissent, and calls upon the Indian government to “follow through on the pledges they made to demonstrators”. InSAF India expressed “unwavering solidarity” to the protesters in a statement issued on July 25. InSAF condemned the police violence, including the use of pellet guns, and the arrests of protestors and student activists. They advocate for wider demands including a halt to “internet shutdowns, campus crackdowns, and bans on books”. They demand the withdrawal of all cases against the protesting students, and “ending harassing and incriminating the people who stood and are standing in solidarity with them”. InSAF advocates for an “education system that must be free and accessible and publicly resourced, radically democratic and autonomous, rooted in a commitment to cultivating a free and independent-minded citizenry”. Indian Alliance Paris (IAP) saluted the “courage, determination, and resilience’ of the student protesters and all those who stood with them, in a statement dated July 29. They highlight that “their struggle has dealt a major political blow to the BJP government, proving once again that collective action can force those in power to retreat. This victory follows in the footsteps of the powerful student movements at Jamia Millia Islamia, JNU, and other campuses across India, where students have consistently resisted authoritarianism, discrimination, and the systematic dismantling of public education”. IAP also stands with all those who were “arbitrarily arrested” during the protests, underscoring that “many of those targeted by the authorities are Muslims, once again exposing the discriminatory and repressive policies pursued by the BJP government against minorities and all dissenting voices”. Parliamentarians in solidarity Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, London, UK, tweeted solidarity with the protests and called out the “appalling violence against an unarmed, youth-led civil disobedience movement in India.” He added, “Peaceful protestors were challenging the broken education system under the Modi government. They were met with tear gas and baton charges. Solidarity with those demanding justice”. Expert reactionsAmnesty International India responded on July 24 to highlight serious human rights concerns following the Delhi Lieutenant Governor invoking powers under India’s National Security Act (NSA) that “allows police to hold people in administrative detention without procedural guarantees.” Aakar Patel, the Board Chair, called this “an affront to human rights that risks enflaming the situation in Delhi even further”. Patel added that “such powers have no place in policing – amid protests or otherwise. Despite the Delhi police’s claim that this is a purely routine administrative measure, we’ve seen Indian police abuse these powers in the context of protests before, from the anti-CAA protests in 2020 to the 2026 workers’ protests in Noida.” At a daily press briefing on July 24, Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, was asked the UN’s position on the ongoing protests in India and the police reaction. Dujarric responded to say, “it is important that people wishing to protest peacefully be allowed to do so without the fear of harassment, the fear of arrest, or the fear of injury. And it is incumbent on security forces, there as is everywhere, to ensure that those rights are protected”.