In Leicester, Britain, heightened tensions between Hindus and Muslims

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In India as in Pakistan, cricket is a true religion; there are few sports where the rivalry between two countries is so fierce. At the end of August and beginning of September, the two national teams compete in the Asian Cup (this year relocated to Dubai): India emerges victorious in the first leg, but Pakistan wins in the second leg and climbs to to the final.
More than 5,000 kilometers from Dubai Stadium in Leicester in the Midlands, supporters’ spirits are running high. And in this city where Hindus and Muslims have cohabited peacefully for more than 50 years. The situation escalates.

Saturday, September 17, several hundred Indians in balaclavas and hoodies parade to cries of “Death in Pakistan“. They also chant “Jai Shri Ram”, a traditional song hijacked by Hindu nationalists, a song which in India has become the symbol of violence against Muslims.

The Muslims do not let it go: the next day, they gather in turn, take down a sacred flag from Shivalaya, the Hindu temple Brahma Samaj on Belgrave Road and set it on fire.

Tensions are amplified, distorted by social networks. The police made a total of forty-seven arrests. A man is notably sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to possession of an “offensive weapon”. This violence makes headlines in India and Pakistan, but in the United Kingdom it goes almost unnoticed: the whole country has its eyes turned towards the funeral of Elizabeth II.

In Leicester, almost one in three residents is from the Indian subcontinent. so far cohabitation has never posed a problem: in the streets, women in sari rub shoulders with schoolchildren in uniform and men in djellaba. Leicester is a successful example of British-style multiculturalism.

But if the cricket matches have had the same effect as a spark in a bale of straw, in a city best known for its football club, it is because for several months now this balance has been wavering. Both sides accuse each other of racism and persecution. Firstly because of economic and social difficulties: the region suffered the brunt of the austerity cure from 2010 (neighborhood associations saw their budget decrease, English lessons became rarer). More recently, with the Covid, the population was confined for almost a year (the longest period in the whole country), today it is the crisis, the purchasing power is in free fall. All this creates a fertile ground: tensions are now exacerbated by Hindu nationalists, who have arrived more recently and often settled in the poorest areas of eastern Leicester.

In India, the mandate of ultra-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi coincides with an upsurge in violence against Christian, Dalit and especially Muslim minority groups. Modi, who is the object of a real cult by its supporters, has notably contributed to dividing the communities. The government is regularly accused of ill-treatment of the Muslim minority via the RSS (Rashtriya swayamsevak sangh), a paramilitary organization created in the early 1920s on the model of Italian fascist leader Mussolini’s Blackshirts. His ideology? Hindutva, Hindu hegemony.

If the conflict is exported, it is because the government party, the BJP, largely mobilizes the Indian diaspora to propagate Hindutva. The reluctance of Leicester’s Hindu leaders to denounce the RSS and Hindutva has also led to some frustration in the city’s Indian Muslim community.

“Let me say to all my fellow Indians that Hindutva has deeply broken our country. Please do not export these divisions worldwidesaid Indian journalist Vasundhara Sirnate on Twitter.

In Leicester, residents complain of young Hindus honking their horns as they pass mosques or listening to loud music during prayer time. But the tensions are also due to agitators outside the city. Leicester Police confirmed that half of the people they arrested were from Birmingham, Solihull, Luton and London.

The city’s Interfaith Council (Council of faiths) is planning a major peace and reconciliation march on Sunday, October 2, with leaders from the Hindu and Muslim communities. Objective: to ease tensions, and above all to prevent them from spreading to other cities in the United Kingdom.


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