India leads world in demonstrations for fifth straight year: ACLED data

India has accounted for the largest share of demonstrations worldwide for five consecutive years, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a US-based nonprofit that tracks political violence and demonstrations in real time.

 

The country recorded 18,074 demonstrations in 2026 through September, accounting for 17.5 per cent of the global total, the data shows. In the past 10 years, demonstrations peaked at 22,130 in 2024 -- the year of general election -- before easing to 20,606 in 2025.

 

Over the past few years, India’s share of global demonstrations has risen, while the US share has declined. India accounted for 10.6 per cent of demonstrations worldwide in 2020, rising to 16.4 per cent in 2024 and 17.5 per cent in 2026 through September. The US share fell from 16.2 per cent in 2020 to 7.8 per cent in 2024, before inching up to 11.2 per cent this year. Pakistan ranked behind the US in the global comparison, after India.

ACLED defines demonstrations as public gatherings in which people assemble to express views, grievances or demands. The category includes protests, rallies and marches, including violent protests, but excludes mob violence.

 

It recorded 11,020 demonstrations in India in 2017, rising to 17,949 in 2019 before the number fell to 14,552 in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. India recorded the world’s largest share of demonstrations in five of the seven years since 2020, across  219 countries  and disputed territories.

 

India’s own official data series on agitations offers a different, longer-term picture, but the government has stopped publishing it.

 The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, recorded 38,235 agitations in 2004. The number rose to 73,341 in 2011, amid widespread anti-corruption protests, before climbing to 115,837 in 2016, the highest level in the available series dating back to at least 2004. That year saw protests over the suicide of University of Hyderabad scholar Rohith Vemula, demonstrations in Gujarat following the flogging of Dalits, the JNU sedition row, and unrest in Kashmir after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, among other incidents.

 

Communal agitations accounted for 30 per cent of the total in 2016, followed by those involving political parties at 25 per cent and labour groups at 20 per cent. Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Punjab together accounted for half of all recorded agitations that year.

 

The BPR&D subsequently stopped publishing the figures and removed the agitations chapter from its Data on Police Organisations reports. Responses to Right to Information requests and a first appeal, reviewed by Business Standard, show that the agency was asked six questions about data from 2017 onward and the reasons for discontinuing the series.

 

The RTI response recorded “NIL”, while the first appellate authority said that “no information is available with BPR&D on the information sought by you under RTI”. The agency provided neither the requested data nor an explanation for discontinuing the series.

 

The government, however, is stepping up its focus on managing mass demonstrations. Following the Gen Z protests in Nepal, media reports said Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed the BPR&D to study protests in India since Independence, with particular emphasis on movements after 1974, and draft a national standard operating procedure to anticipate and manage mass agitations.

 

The two aforementioned data sets, however, measure different things and should not be treated as directly comparable. The BPR&D classified agitations by their principal issue or participating group, including communal, student and labour movements. ACLED uses an event-based methodology to record demonstrations.