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On August 28, 2022, Leicester in the United Kingdom witnessed violent street clashes between sections of the Hindu and Muslim communities after India defeated Pakistan in an Asia Cup match in Dubai. The clashes were widely reported in local and regional media. A few days later, on September 17, 2022, around 300 men marched through Green Lane Road in Highfields, a predominantly Muslim area in east Leicester. Described as a ‘Hindu solidarity march’, organisers said it was necessary to safeguard their position in society.

Tensions predated this chain of action and reaction. Leicester had begun adopting the majoritarian posture that many right-wing Hindu groups in India have taken towards minorities, details in the report show. In May 2022, an 18-year-old Muslim man was brutally attacked near Uppingham Road by 20 to 30 individuals who allegedly demanded that he identify his religion. Police intervened, but no charges were brought. The incident generated resentment among sections of the Muslim community, who viewed it as a hate crime followed by perceived police inaction.

There was this and many other flashpoints along the way to the events of September 17, a report by the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the 2022 Leicester violence, exclusively accessed by The Wire, reveals. Even before the Asia Cup cricket match, the city was beginning to experience a visible divide between two communities that had lived in relative cohesion within the diaspora for decades.

The report, titled “Better Together: Understanding the 2022 Violence in Leicester”, documents provocative behaviour by Hindu youths, largely from the Daman and Diu regional community, including gatherings outside mosques and convoys of cars honking and waving flags, particularly on India’s Independence Day, August 15, and after the India-Pakistan match on August 28.

Several Muslim residents perceived these actions as deliberate provocations. The report concludes that at least some of the actions were intended to be offensive to Muslim residents of the city.

Also read: Leicester Communal Clashes: ‘India Continues to be in Contact with UK Authorities,’ Says MEA

Following India’s victory in the cricket match, social cohesion in Leicester began to fray further, suggests the report. Large celebratory crowds and car........

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