The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) has reported that the Indian government has used 9 of the 11 transnational repression tactics against U.S diaspora critics, including surveillance, intimidation, denial of consular services, and threats to Indian family members.

The report highlights the role of Indian consulates as the extension of the regime into communities and restrictions on constitutional rights, reflecting domestic authoritarianism and Hindu sub-nationalism. This oppression directly threatens the democratic ethos and freedom of expression and speech guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution.

Since 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Indian government has been pursuing transnational repression (TNR) against North American opposition and religious minorities. An Indian American Muslim Council report in 2025 lists nine of the eleven TNR mechanisms deployed on US territory, including surveillance, digital misinformation, refusal of consular assistance, computer hacking, and direct harassment.

The report accuses Indian diplomatic missions of actively suppressing democratic norms through administrative disruption and coercive influence on Indian Americans. This systematic suppression restricts freedom of expression and civil rights, making significant strides against US democratic values and laws protecting them.

India's transnational repression has led to the assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 and the failed attempt to assassinate US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York. India has been an early adopter of transnational repression, with nine of the eleven law enforcement tactics outlined by the FBI applied against its citizens in other countries. The Modi regime is constructing a distorted narrative, equated with criticism as disloyalty.

This is achieved through reinterpretation of law, control over media, and selective prosecution. The state suppresses opposing views and reconstructs the population's thought process to maintain ideological legitimacy, as seen in the case of photo journalist Masrat Zahra in 2020. she was charged under India’s UAPA and had her passport revoked for sharing conflict-related imagery from Kashmir

This extraterritorial authoritarianism complements India's home policy, which includes systematic discrimination against Muslims, Sikhs, and Dalits under Prime Minister Modi's leadership. More than 60% of Muslim job seekers have been rejected for citizenship in recent screening drives. These strategies create a fearful atmosphere, forcing diaspora critics to bow down due to threats across borders.

In 2021, the Global Hindutva Conference in the US, resulting in over one million coordinated death threats to intimidate participants, crashing university servers. The event was a result of transnational repression, involving both technological and psychological measures. Indian consulates, particularly in Chicago, interfered in local democratic operations to block resolutions criticizing policies like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The consulate of India in New York was also cooperating with extremist groups during diaspora events, using anti-Muslim imagery. This incident coincides with six years of designation by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as a "Country of Particular Concern" due to Indian religious rights violations.

The IAMC’s findings on India’s transnational repression align with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) sixth consecutive designation of India as a “Country of Particular Concern” for systemic religious freedom violations. In light of these concerns, IAMC urges the U.S.

Congress to pass the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024, impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on implicated Indian officials, and intensify scrutiny of India’s human rights record. The targeting of diaspora activists and minorities reflects a deliberate expansion of authoritarian tactics beyond India’s borders, threatening democratic values and civil liberties in the United States and demanding coordinated international response.

India's use of tactics like cyber surveillance, family reprisal, and false terrorism charges is seen as a strategic attempt to stifle criticism in foreign lands, undermining American democracy and increasing risks to civil freedom.

India is facing an increase in transnational repression, with cases of assassination, attempted assassination, and persecution of dissenters. The Indian state uses nine of the eleven TNR tools identified by the FBI, including family retaliation, digital harassment, and consular obstruction. Diplomats and proxies from intelligence agencies destabilize democratic institutions, leading to fear, self-censorship, and administrative sabotage in diaspora communities. To defend civil liberties and global human rights, extraterritorial authoritarianism should be subjected to legal and political challenges.

Abdul Mussawer Safi just got his degree from the National Defence University (NDU) in Islamabad. He has worked with think tanks like the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in Islamabad, the Pak-Afghan Youth Forum (PAYF), and the South Asia Times (SAT)