A recent independent commission report revealed that some people from India’s Daman and Diu region, who hold Portuguese passports, were ‘important actors’ in the 2022 outbreaks of violence in Leicester. Sonia Sarkar unpacks how multicultural Leicester turned communally divisive
Four years have passed since violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims in Leicester, a city in the UK's East Midlands. In February, an inquiry report by six independent experts underlined ‘provocative behaviour’ by Hindu youths, who hailed largely from India’s western union territory, Daman and Diu.
The 2022 violence cascaded to other regions, resulting in 47 arrests. Following the unrest, Indians advocating Hindutva ideology, which frames Hindus as superior and Muslims as the 'other', spread Islamophobic hate on social media.
Hashtags such as #HindusUnderAttackInUK presented Hindus as victims of ‘Pakistani’ and ‘Islamist’ gangs. Many of Leicester's Muslims are originally from Pakistan.
The report, however, also claimed that pro-political Islamist external political actors and social media ‘influencers’ generated communal narratives about the 2022 events, spreading misinformation and disinformation.
In the former Portuguese colonies of Goa and Daman and Diu, people born before 1961, and their descendants, are eligible for EU citizenship. More than 28,000 such Portuguese passport holders entered the UK before Brexit. In many cases, their dependents followed.
Many from Daman and Diu settled in Leicester. In fact, Leicester has England’s highest proportion of Portuguese passport holders: 18,862 or 5.1% of its population. In second and third places are the London Boroughs of Brent (14,218) and Hounslow (10,537). Leicester and Brent also have the UK's largest concentrations of South Asian Hindus, suggesting that the majority of Portuguese citizens in these areas probably hail from Daman and Diu, not Portugal.
Most migrants from the Daman and Diu region were low-status fishermen back in India. In the UK, these migrants now face caste discrimination from other Hindus
Most Daman and Diu migrants are from the region's fishing community. In the UK, they often contend with poverty and unemployment, suffer overcrowded housing, and lack formal integration support. And because they are largely descended from low-status fishermen, they also face caste discrimination from other Hindus.
Some Daman and Diu men, however, stand accused of anti-social behaviour. They have been recorded drinking outside mosques, and intimidating Muslim worshippers.
In May 2022, an 18-year-old Muslim boy was beaten up by 20–30 men after they asked him his religion. On 15 August – Indian Independence Day – Daman and Diu men launched a convoy of cars which roved around mosques, stopping to play ‘provocative music’.
On 28 August, after India won a cricket match against Pakistan, youths from the same community roamed the streets chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Victory to 'Mother India'), honking their horns and waving Indian flags before mosques.
A few days later, on 4 September, eggs were thrown into a Hindu household during the religious festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. Next day, a Muslim man suspected of throwing the eggs was allegedly assaulted by around 50 Hindus. Later that evening, Muslim youths allegedly attacked Hindu individuals and homes.
On 17 September, 300 Daman and Diu Hindu youths held a three-kilometre march from Hindu-majority Belgrave to Green Lane Road, which is majority Muslim. Some carried knives and bats.
For my research on Hindutva in the UK, I interviewed a senior member of the UK chapter of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about these incidents. He told me that most of these men from Daman and Diu rode motorcycles from London specifically for the march, shouting Bharat Mata Ki Jai on the streets of Leicester. It was, explained the BJP representative, ‘complicated’. Police eventually arrived to ‘control the situation’. The representative blamed the ‘new arrivals’ for creating unrest.
I also interviewed a Leicester-based Muslim representative from the South Asian community. She judged the September violence ‘extremely unfortunate’ and ‘unexpected’. Leicester has long been a hub of multiculturalism and, historically, Leicester's South Asians united against institutional racism. But ‘something’, they said, had been ‘bubbling for a while’. Communities began to view each other ‘in a different way’, and this finally erupted in violence.
Leicester has long been a hub of multiculturalism. Now, however, communities are beginning to view each other 'in a different way'
Hindus used to celebrate festivals mainly in temples and at home. Today, Hindu nationalists often use Jai Shri Ram (Victory to Lord Ram) as an aggressive Hindutva slogan to attack Muslims. Jai Shri Ram emerged in India during the 1980s Ramjanmabhoomi movement. This led in 1992 to the demolition of the 16th century Babri mosque in Ayodhya. Hindutva actors claimed that the mosque was built on the birthplace of Hindu god Ram. The Hindus got their way, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the temple, dedicated to Ram, in 2024. Since then, this slogan has turned into an invocation for any act of Hindu majoritarian violence.
One local told an independently funded digital news publication that 'Some examples of anti-social behaviour that have worried the Muslim community include playing loud music outside mosques, illegally blocking and dancing outside mosques during Hindu festivals, and slowing down in front of mosques to hoot their horns in a rather provocative manner.'
Leicester’s Daman and Diu community invokes angry Hanuman the monkey god, and former Indian warrior Shivaji, both now misappropriated as Hindutva heroes by violent Hindutva activists in India. Some religious processions even carry flags depicting Shivaji, a Hindu Maratha warrior against the Mughals, who were predominantly Muslims.
While most Leicester Hindus reject Hindutva ideologies, a small group persists in promoting militant Hindutva themes in public celebrations
Professors, anti-racist activists, and experts in human rights and transitional justice, who prepared the inquiry report, claim that most Leicester Hindus reject Hindutva ideologies. But a small, organised group persists in promoting militant Hindutva themes in public celebrations. A 2025 British intelligence report revealed that Hindutva actors in the UK also have ties with the British far right.
The report found local police had little understanding of Hindutva or political Islamism, or their political contexts, and this shaped police responses to the 2022 unrest.
To maintain social cohesion and peace, law enforcement must be able to identify troublemakers representing both violent political Islamism and Hindutva. While there has been an effort to challenge political Islamists, Hindutva supremacy has not been tackled. It must also understand that Hindutva actors from India’s ruling BJP are mobilising Leicester's Hindus. There should be a political will to recognise militant Hindutva as a form of extremism.
