In August and September 2022, Leicester, England, saw a period of religious and ethnic tension between predominately British Hindus and British Muslims of South Asian origin. The unrest saw rioting, protest marches, sloganeering and ethnic violence between the two populations. It was also preceded by social media campaigning, misinformation and hate propaganda. Muslim apprehensions of what they regarded as "Hindutva fascism" entering their neighbourhoods was evidently the main driver behind the unrest. Community leaders and analysts point to the Indian celebrations following the India–Pakistan 2022 Asia Cup match on 28 August as a catalyst, which saw a reaction from Pakistani fans.
Background
Like most British cities, Leicester has significant and growing South Asian British populations. Leicester is known for its diversity, and is one of three cities in England where the White British population are a minority. Since the end of the Second World War, the city has welcomed successive waves of migration, with immigrants from the Indian sub-continent arriving in the 1960s, followed by Asians arriving from Kenya and Uganda in the early 1970s. By 2011, the Asian population of Leicester stood at 37.13%, with the city having notable Muslim and Hindu communities, at 18.63% and 15.19% respectively. Muslims predominantly live in eastern Leicester (LE5 postcode), with particular concentration in the Spinney Hills and North Evington neighbourhoods. Hindus live in north Leicester (LE4 postcode), mainly in the Belgrave area. The ‘spatial polarization’ developed since the 1970s, with the Belgrave area (a former working class neighbourhood) becoming home to affluent East African Hindus and 'denying access' to the 'sub-continentals in Highfields’ who were from peasant backgrounds. The two mosques in the Belgrave area in 1995 were run not by small Pakistani community, but by East African Gujarati Muslims.
Scholar Ayesha Siddiqa points out the growing extremism among British Muslims, owing to several factors such as the Tory governments encouraging communal education since the 1990s, the British welcome given to Muslim clergy as a partner in the Afghan wars, and the geopolitical developments that brought various extremist ideologies to congregate in Britain. The growing economic disparity between Hindu and Muslim communities had also been a cause for resentment and anxiety among the Muslims. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that came to power in India, along with prime minister Narendra Modi, is expected to have had high levels of support among the Hindus in UK.
The British party politics is seen to have caused polarisation between the two communities, with Muslims siding with the Labour Party and Hindus siding with the Conservatives. The 2019 general election was not only a "Brexit and NHS election", but also a "Kashmir election" according to the Guardian columnist Sunny Hundal. This was a reference to the Modi Government's decisive action in integrating Kashmir into India in 2019, and the corresponding backlash in Pakistan. These developments had reactions in British Hindu and Muslim communities. Rutgers University's Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), which has investigated the online trends between 2019 and 2022, noted a wide dispersion of anti-Hindu and anti-India slurs and tropes during this period. Anti-Hindu memes accompanied by pejoratives such as "pajeet" (slur for Indian or Hindu), "streetshitter", "poojeet", "scamming" (dishonest), "mong" (unintelligent) etc. have been doing the rounds depicting Hindus as dirty, Islamophobic and barbaric.
Locally in East Leicester, a large batch of immigrants belonging to the Daman Hindu community, carrying Portuguese passports, are said to have arrived in Leicester in the recent years. They settled in the LE5 postcode area, which was otherwise predominantly Muslim. The celebration of Hindu festivals and public consumption of alcohol by the new arrivals were considered disruptive by Muslims living in the area. Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe stated that friction between the two communities had been "simmering for months".