SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities. Starting July 1, 2026, SAR no longer publishes reports for the incidents that it records. SAR continues to monitor and record incidents that will be used in the annual Free to Think report. This page provides a record of incidents reported up to that date. Learn more about the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.

Date of Incident: October 22, 2024

Attack Types: Killings, Violence, Disappearances

Institution(s):Cochin College

Region & Country:Southern Asia | India

New or Ongoing:New Incident

On October 22, 2024, members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) attacked members of the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) at Cochin College and at a hospital, injuring at least four students. Twenty students from SFI and CPI were arrested as a result. 

After having won all seven seats in the Cochin College student union election, KSU’s winning candidates gathered on campus for the oath-taking ceremony. As part of the victory celebration, members hoisted KSU banners on campus premises. Angered by this, some members of SFI began attacking students from KSI. Four KSI students were injured and hospitalized as a result. 

That evening, a student leader from CPI, followed by nineteen students from SFI, barged into the hospital that had admitted KSU students earlier that day. They began kicking and attacking the KSU patients until police arrived to intervene. The following day, police issued an arrest warrant to all twenty students who had participated in the attack. 

Scholars at Risk is concerned about violent attacks by students against other students. Scholars at Risk calls on all parties to exercise restraint and to avoid violence. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, such actions undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally. State authorities have the right and obligation to maintain order, which they must with due regard for the rights of protesters and others, including the rights to free expression, academic freedom, peaceful assembly, and due process. 

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
The Hindu
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/violence-erupts-between-sfi-and-ksu-escalates-to-hospital-assault/articleshow/114475943.cms
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/violence-at-taluk-hospital-in-kochi-cases-registered-against-cpim-sfi-activists/article68787169.ece
https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2024/Oct/24/cpm-leader-19-others-booked-for-assaulting-ksu-workers-in-hospital-in-kochi