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Journalism of Courage
Over the past 24 hours, media in the United Kingdom have been reporting on “large-scale” and “serious” disorder in the English city of Leicester to the northwest of London after street clashes between large groups of Hindus and Muslims.
On Monday evening India time, the High Commission of India in the UK posted a press release on its official Twitter handle, strongly condemning “the violence perpetrated against the Indian Community in Leicester and vandalization of premises and symbols of the Hindu religion”.
Temporary Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police Rob Nixon said there have been “numerous reports of an outbreak of disorder in parts of the East Leicester area of the city”, following which additional officers and resources have been put on the ground to take control of the situation. “Please do not get involved. We are calling for calm,” he said.
Claudia Webbe, the independent MP from Leicester East, issued an appeal on Twitter calling for “cool heads”, and implored everyone to “go home”. She called for “dialogue to repair community relations”.
In an update posted on Twitter on Sunday (September 18) afternoon India time, Leicester Police said: “Parts of East Leicester experienced serious disorder yesterday evening (Saturday 17 September) into this morning (Sunday) when large crowds formed after groups of young men began an unplanned protest.”
Officers tried to “engage” with a group travelling towards Green Lane Road and “sought to keep actions lawful but, regrettably, the situation led to disorder”, the police said.
The statement said two men had been arrested, one on “suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder”, and the other on “suspicion of possession of a bladed article”. The police called for calm, and warned, “We will not tolerate violence or disorder in our city.”
Why is there unrest in the city?
There has been recurring trouble in the eastern part of Leicester since August 28, the day India and Pakistan played a group stage match in the Asia Cup T20 cricket tournament in Dubai, and the weekend’s disorder was the latest of several similar incidents since then, The Guardian reported. India won the game by 5 wickets with 2 balls remaining after Player of the Match Hardik Pandya blitzed a 17-ball 33.
On Saturday (September 17), a group of men were filmed marching through the city’s Green Lane Road area, where there are a number of Muslim-owned businesses and a Hindu temple, The Guardian report said.
The report quoted a 42-year-old community leader named Rukhsana Hussain as saying she heard cries of “Jai Shri Ram” from some distance away. Subsequently, someone called Majid Freeman, whom The Guardian report described as a 34-year-old community activist, posted a video on Twitter, purportedly of Hindus on Belgrave Road throwing glass bottles.
The Guardian report quoted Freeman as saying the mob was “coming past our mosques, taunting the community and physically beating people up randomly”, in response to which “the Muslim community came out and said: ‘We can’t trust the police, we’re going to defend our community ourselves.’”
The same report quoted 31-year-old Drishti Mae, “a lifelong Leicester resident who used to chair a national Hindu organisation”, as saying she had never seen unrest of this kind in the city.
“It’s the Hindu community that’s being targeted, a first-generation migrant community…They feel threatened, and attacked,” she told The Guardian. She alleged the police were failing to protect property, people and places of worship, according to the report, and said “We do have a right to protect ourselves.”
The Leicester Police update said the police were “aware of a video circulating showing a man pulling down a flag outside a religious building on Melton Road, Leicester”, and that they would investigate.
Is it unusual for clashes to follow sporting encounters?
England has famously seen rioting and violence on the streets by drunken hooligans following football matches. Most recently, there was chaos at Wembley after fans without tickets stormed the stadium where England were playing Italy for the European Championship in July 2021. The lawlessness was described as the worst in the UK in a decade.
India-Pakistan cricket matches are different because they often have a strong communal profile. Fans on either side do not share the good relations that the teams themselves have, and almost all India-Pakistan clashes are tense affairs in the two countries with potential for unrest and violence. Violence among expat communities of Hindus and Muslims is, however, unusual.
A report by the BBC quoted Suleman Nagdi of the Leicester-based Federation of Muslim Organisations as saying “there have been problems in the community since the India and Pakistan cricket match (of August 28) and while that game (India vs Pakistan) often sparks gatherings they have not in the past turned this ugly”.
Nagdi, quoted in the BBC report, described the situation as “very alarming”, and urgently called for calm. “There are some very dissatisfied young men who have been causing havoc,” the BBC quoted him as saying. “We need to get the message out that this must end and try to do this through parents and grandparents talking to their sons,” he said.
The same BBC report quoted Sanjiv Patel, who the report said represents Hindu and Jain temples across Leicester, as expressing deep sadness and shock over the disorder on Saturday night. People needed to talk to each other to remove grievances, he said.
“We have lived in harmony in the city for many decades but over the past few weeks it is clear there are things that need to be discussed around the table to get out what people are unhappy about. Resorting to violence is not the way to deal with this,” the report quoted Patel as saying.
“We are horrified and deplore what was going on (yesterday) and across the last two weeks,” Patel told the BBC. “Across the Hindu and Jain community and with our Muslim brothers and sisters and leaders we are consistently saying ‘calm minds, calm heads’.”
Patel cautioned people to not fall for disinformation on social media. “Violence is not a solution to anything. This has to be a time for peace, calm and engagement,” he told the BBC.
According to a UK National Health Service (NHS) report on the ‘Demographic Profile of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland’ which used estimates based on the 2011 UK Census, “compared to the England benchmark, Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland had higher proportions of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and those of No Religion”.
According to the report, the numbers of Muslims and Hindus were almost the same — 7.4 per cent and 7.2 per cent of the population respectively — while Sikhs were 2.4 per cent. Fifty-five per cent were Christian.
The report noted that “within Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, broadly, people from minority religions and those of No Religion were concentrated at younger age bands, whilst there were higher proportions of Christians at older age bands”.
In Leicester City specifically, the proportions of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and those of “other” religions were higher compared to the England benchmark. Also, “within Leicester City, broadly, people from most minority religions and those of No Religion were concentrated at younger age bands, whilst there were higher proportions of Christians, Hindus, and Jews at older age bands”, the report said.
