There have been recurring incidents of violence in eastern Leicester since the 28th August match between India and Pakistan during Asia Cup, 2022. India won the match against Pakistan and there were clashes between the Hindu and Muslim community after that. Since then multiple conflicting accounts of riots have hit social media where both sides have accused each other of using violence against the other. Leicester has an equal number of Hindus and Muslims at around 7 percent each and cricket matches in the past have sparked community gatherings as well. However, violence at this scale is pretty unusual for a city that prides itself for its multiculturalism.
In 2011 census, Leicester was identified as the first city of the UK where majority of residents identified as non-white British. With around 70 spoken languages and 14 different faiths, it even became a part of UK’s national history celebrations in 2021 at the Institute of Historical Research in London. Leicester’s Narborough Road was named the most diverse street in the UK by a study in 2016 because it has shops run by people from 22 countries spread across four continents. There have been different waves of immigrants to Leicester with first wave around 2,000 years ago that welcomed Romans in to the city. Later during industrial revolution, there was a growing need for workforce that led to Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants flocking to the city by the end of the 19th century.
The two World Wars marked the third wave of immigrants with persecuted people from across Europe especially Belgians and Eastern Europeans finding a safe haven in the city. After World War II that coincided with Partition of India, people from the Caribbean and South Asia settled in Leicester looking for work. Leicester has continued to accept people since then with many people from Eastern Europeans countries migrating there after the disintegration of Soviet Union in the 90s. Leicester has tradition of a ‘Mela’ since 1982 and a Caribbean festival since 1985. Multiple festivals are celebrated in the city including Diwali, Holi, Eid, Hanukah along with the traditional British festivals.
Its claim of being a model multicultural city is so strong that it has fuelled multiple academic inquiries and journalistic reports. Local authorities take pride in its multi-ethnic and multicultural society with tolerance and inclusivity to the extent that it has become a brand in itself. Newspaper reports often celebrate Leicester’s multiculturalism by calling it a ‘model city’, ‘UK’s most diverse city’, ‘a city where everyone is a minority’.
From a multicultural city, suddenly Leicester has become one fraught with clear markings, all thanks to the narrative peddled by Left-liberals. In the past few days, multiple journalists, academics and activists have accused the members of Hindu community for taking out march from the “Muslim areas” of Leicester. Now for a city that takes pride in co-existence of multiple ethnicities and cultures with values of tolerance and inclusivity, this is nothing short of a brutal exposure of the reality.
The demarcation of urban and cosmopolitan spaces as Muslim areas is not something new or unique to Leicester, such trends have become increasingly common across the world with similar usage of the term during Ram Navami processions in India as well. While a section of intelligentsia has argued against uses of this term because of its exclusionary tone and normalisation of democratic spaces into medieval-era ghettos, what’s even more problematic is the fact that the same European countries, that act like a torch bearer of multiculturalism across the world, are now suffering from riots in the name of religion.
In 1975, Sweden officially adopted multiculturalism as a policy arguing that it will enrich the Swedish culture as well as ensure the well-being of the minority communities. In April 2022, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson confessed that the multiculturalism model has failed because a vast community of immigrants could not be integrated leading to violent gang crimes across Sweden. A series of riots had erupted in Sweden in early April when a politician burned a copy of the Quran and angry protesters swarmed Swedish streets. The UK itself has witnessed the ugliest side of multiculturalism and political correctness when British Police deliberately ignored the Rotherham child abuse syndicate due to what a British politician called as “not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat”.
The current incidents of violence in Leicester have received a similar response as the same Left-liberals who argue for multicultural societies and foster acceptance for immigrants in European societies are now making a case for exclusive “Muslim areas”. A truly multicultural society would ideally exist only when all communities follow law and order and believe in real integration and cohesion. However, that increasingly looks like a distant dream. Some truth-speaking need to be done to the migrants so that they understand and value the society which is welcoming them instead of creating their own areas and pushing for their own rules. However, political correctness is a virtue, which will win over any expectation of common sense in today’s times.
The author is a PhD in International Relations from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. Her research focuses on the political economy of South Asia and regional integration. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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