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.Read the monthly roundup for May 1-31, 2026.International media reportsDemocracy Now, US, May 1Amy Goodman interviews Neha Dixit on the state of workers’ rights and freedoms in India describing worsening labour exploitation amid rising fuel costs and labour unrest. Dixit said Narendra Modi’s government has been “trying to dilute labor laws” through policies enabling “hire-and-fire” practices and restricting strikes. She highlighted how migrant workers, especially Dalits, Adivasis, and Muslims, endure “acute poverty”, while global corporations profit from cheap labour. Dixit also criticised the Modi government for “systemically” disenfranchising minorities, claiming millions of Muslim voters were removed from electoral rolls in a process critics called “unconstitutional.” New York Times, US, May 1Arman Khan writes about how restrictions on online self-expression by the Modi government are “sending a chill through society”. He highlights that “the stakes are particularly high” for Muslims, disclosing that “every word I write, including in this essay, is tinged with fear.” The implications are long-term since “even more liberal future governments might find it hard to resist the machinery of silence being installed”. Other countries also need to watch this “potential template” for a system in which “when people are afraid to express themselves, they don’t.”Bloomberg, US, May 5Following recent state elections, Andy Mukherjee contends that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally brought the world’s most-populous nation to the precipice of an all-powerful, one-party state”. Mukherjee points to Modi’s use of federal institutions to achieve “what was once thought impossible” which is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) winning the majority in West Bengal. He alleges that the Election Commission oversaw a controversial “purification” drive disproportionately affecting “minority-heavy regions”. The so-called Special Intensive Revision (SIR), an “exercise effectively imported the north Indian model of religious polarization by administrative fiat” struck Mamata Banerjee’s electorate causing “a blatant abrogation of individual voting rights, a first in the Indian republic’s 76-year history”. Mukherjee claims Modi achieved “quieter, more efficient ways” to crush dissent, warning that future elections may be fought not against political rivals, but against “the institutional sway of New Delhi.” Al Jazeera, Qatar, May 6Tanushree Pandey describes how Manipur’s three-year ethnic conflict has “mutated and deepened,” with killings often left “officially unidentified”. Pandey points to alleged state complicity through government inaction, impunity, and failure to prosecute armed groups. Critics say that “lack of accountability continues to deepen mistrust among the communities.” The conflict has killed more than 250 people and displaced more than 58,000 people since May 2023, with many survivors believing the state enabled a climate of “persistent fear and insecurity”. Financial Times, UK, May 12Michael Scott, Jyotsna Singh and Andres Schipani report on the mass exodus of migrant workers from industrial hubs like Noida, exposing deep economic precarity in India, amidst rising fuel prices triggered by the US-Iran war. Workers said the LPG price hike “made life unbearable,” while labour rights activists blamed stagnant wages and weak labour protections under the government’s “Make in India” push. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged citizens to “tighten their belts” as migrant families abandoned cities for their villages. Economists argue that “workers’ wages have not kept pace with prices…you can’t have a developed economy where workers are not earning enough to live.” CNN, US, May 12Laura Paddison reports on the heat crisis in India, revealing that on April 27,2026, “the planet’s top 50 hottest cities” were all in India, based on data compiled by AQI, the air quality monitoring platform. Experts say heat in India may “cross the survivability limit” for healthy humans by 2050. The most vulnerable are the very young and very old, as well as outdoor workers. Extreme heat also threatens farming and food production and puts pressure on India’s economy and health care system. Middle East Eye, UK, May 18Azad Essa reports on alarms raised by activists with the BDS movement and No Harbour for Genocide alleging that India-linked firms are supplying “military-grade steel” to Israel. This could be used to manufacture thousands of 155mm artillery shells to further attack Gaza. Essa claims shipments of “military grade steel” from Indian company R L Steels & Energy Limited were directly sent to Israel’s IMI Systems in October 2025. Ilham Yaseen, military embargo coordinator with the BDS movement, said, “the BDS movement is calling for pressure to stop these supplies from reaching Israel and to hold the far-right Indian government and any complicit Indian company accountable for their complicity in Israel’s atrocity crimes”. Drilled, US, May 20Rishika Pardikar illustrates the obfuscation, through evasion and denial, by Indian policy makers of the severity of India’s air pollution crisis. This includes assertions that there is no “conclusive evidence” establishing a causal link between air pollution and mortality. Minutes of meetings of the committee that revises the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) show some of the ways in which the denial operates. For instance, the relevance of “health impact studies done elsewhere” are questioned, while diverting to “indigenous studies” to frame standards. A stance projecting an “implicit belief that Indians are somehow more adapted to air pollution” is being spread. Pardikar analyses documents that reveal that in official meetings, which include the Union environment ministry, causal links between respiratory ailments and air pollution are diminished with air pollution cast as only “one of the triggering factors.”The Guardian, UK, May 26Gianluca Liva, Marta Frigerio and Filippo Tommasoli report on the protests across India after revelations that an Italian factory linked to a major PFAS contamination scandal was relocated, affecting over 350,000 people in Italy, and restarted in Maharashtra by Laxmi Organic Industries. PFAS, known as “forever chemicals”, are linked to cancer and other health risks. Indian lawmakers called for a federal investigation after raising concerns in Parliament about the “transfer from Europe to India of industrial equipment linked to pollution” and the fact that India has “no specific regulation on PFAS.” The controversy has sparked nationwide debate over environmental justice and industrial accountability. Al Jazeera, Qatar, May 27Sajid Raina and Tauseef Ahmad report that many Muslims in India faced restrictions on Eid-Al Adah prayers in public spaces, especially in BJP-ruled states. Authorities warned against praying on roads, forcing mosques to hold prayers in shifts. Many worshippers said they felt “naturally scared” amid police action and threats. In Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath’s government known for “anti-Muslim vitriol” has “intensified crackdowns” on Muslims for offering prayers outdoors. Community leaders said the restrictions were making Muslims feel “targeted” and “thinking carefully about visibility, movement” during an important religious festival. Al Jazeera, Qatar, May 29Saif Khalid analyses Indian efforts over the years trying to diplomatically isolate Pakistan, especially after the 2016 Uri attack. Khalid writes that the strategy has “backfired in a big way” because of “missteps” by the Modi government particularly its shift from a “balanced, largely non-aligned foreign policy” to a more “transactional” approach”. Conversely, Pakistan has strengthened ties with major powers including the US, China and Gulf states, while gaining influence in regional diplomacy. On May 18, Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendson tweeted her live questioning Prime Minister Modi’s refusal to take questions from the press, following an official press conference on his visit to Norway. Svendson faced criticism and some reprisal following Modi’s departure. Indian diaspora and civil society groupsDiaspora and international civil society groups issued a joint May Day statement expressing support for Indian workers resisting “capitalist exploitation,” “state repression,” and the “erosion of labour protections.” The statement condemns the arrest of 1,000 worker leaders and activists, across Delhi and neighboring regions, on fabricated charges of “criminal conspiracy” for participating in protests demanding basic labour rights amidst rising living costs, and weakening labour rights. It reinforces demands by united trade fronts in India, including the immediate and unconditional release of all arrested workers and labor activists, halt of the criminalisation of dissent and democratic protest, repeal of the four anti-worker Labor Codes, and instituting a minimum wage of Rs 30,000 per month for an 8-hour working day, to name a few. Experts sayThe South Asia Justice Campaign released an India Persecution Tracker that documents human rights abuses and violations against India’s religious minorities from 1 January to 30 April, 2026. As per the tracker, India saw escalating state-led repression targeting Muslims through “staged police encounters,” mass detentions, demolitions, expulsions, and electoral disenfranchisement. Political leaders, including the Prime Minister, used “dehumanising language” portraying Muslims as outsiders. Experts warned these practices reflect “institutionalised domination” and, in Assam’s case, conditions amounting to “apartheid”. The tracker also contains links to statements by international actors, such as the UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and on Extrajudicial Killings condemning the practice of “encounter” and “half-encounter” shootings by police, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, against Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis. Executive Director Raqib Naik of the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate testified before the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on May 7. He was recorded as testifying that the “RSS, Bajrang Dal, and VHP should be sanctioned by the United States. Companies supplying bulldozers used in demolitions targeting minorities should also be held accountable”.India ranks 157th in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, reflecting growing concerns over media freedom. RSF says “judicial harassment of independent media is intensifying” in India, driven by the “growing use of criminal statutes.” The report specifically cites defamation and national security laws being used against journalists, placing India among Asia-Pacific countries where legal mechanisms increasingly suppress independent reporting and critical journalism. Apekshita Varshney, founder of HeatWatch, explains key issues that are being ignored, around the heat crisis in India in an interview with Shalinee Kumari. She warns that the number of heatstroke deaths is underreported. Varshney adds that indoor heat in informal settlements and smaller factories, as well as broader protections at the workplace beyond amenities, are also not getting needed attention. She says there is a lack of research or reporting on how caste and occupation are linked to heat exposure, emphasising that the communities that “contribute very little to carbon emissions” are the ones facing the most severe consequences of climate change. Varshney recommends that heatwaves need to be notified as a national disaster, not just state-specific, to open up financing for mitigation strategies. Dirty Data, a collaborative investigation by the Environmental Reporting Collective, examines the environmental and social costs of AI-driven data centres across the world. Investigative findings for India reveal that “expanding data centers are encroaching on the water supply of neighbourhoods, with the poorest communities bearing the brunt.” Billion-dollar projects by companies like Google and Microsoft are putting “pressure on water, power, land, or local ecosystems.” The situation is particularly exacerbating for low-income Dalit communities across the country facing forced evictions, displacement, and intensifying water and power shortages. The investigators find that India’s AI boom is advancing with “little regard” for vulnerable communities, despite promises of jobs and development. Read the previous roundup here.