‘Anything can light the fuse which sparks violence’
I HAVE lived in Leicester for more than 26 years, and as a Hindu, I have friends from all religions. Our children have gone to school together, they have played together, and now they work together.
It is the way it has always been and stems from a shared history, shared culture and shared respect.
In fact, we never ask about our faith. We never ask about our ancestry. And we never discuss our personal politics.
That does not mean we talk merely about the weather.
Like most people, we put the world to rights regularly, and when we disagree, we do agree to disagree.
In the time I have lived in this city, I have never felt there were no-go areas among south Asian communities.
As a family, we get our groceries from wards with a Muslim majority. We have always felt safe. We, along with our Muslim friends, will eat in restaurants where the majority are Hindus. We have never experienced bigotry.
This week, I have been interviewed by several media outlets, asking for my insights into
the “sudden disorder” and “why the mayor and police were caught off guard”.
This is because in 2001, I witnessed the segregation of parts of England along the fault lines of race; reported on the rise of right-wing extremists; and chronicled the explosion of violence in the north of England.
The fact is that the tensions in Leicester should not have come as a surprise to anyone.
Although we have lived harmoniously side by side, it does not mean that everything is fine and dandy.
My experience from more than 50-years in this wonderful country is that anything can light the fuse which sparks incendiary violence. No one seems to need an excuse.
I know it is easy to say this in hindsight. But I have been talking about the influence of politics from the Indian sub-continent coming to UK streets for more than two decades.
We saw that when the Labour Party – under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership – criticised India for its administration of Kashmir at its 2019 conference.
We saw that during that year’s general election when Hindus used WhatsApp to tell colleagues that ‘if you voted for Labour, you could not a true follower of the faith’.
We saw that during the Batley and Spen by election in July 2021. Labour sent leaflets of former prime minister, Boris Johnson, shaking hands with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, with the words “Don’t risk a Tory who is not on your side”.
And then we saw that in May’s local election when Harrow council in northwest London, which was Labour controlled since 2006, lost to the Conservatives.
Sources told me that it was because Hindus had campaigned along religious lines.
Yet no one, not our political leaders, not our civic leaders, and certainly not our religious leaders, wants to acknowledge, never mind discuss the possibility, that this is a bad thing.
And things will get worse before they get better, and things will get better, I am sure.
Why? Because in 2010, the English Defence League held a march in Bradford. It was from the same play book as the British National Party, the National Front and Combat 18 of 2001.
Agitate enough and wait for it to kick off.
Only this time, community elders asked their youth not to bite. Women put themselves in harm’s way, acting as human shields between EDL and Asian youth, to prevent a repetition of a decade earlier.
To their credit, the Asian communities showed huge tolerance and huge maturity, and the danger passed.
Like then, sources are blaming the youth of Leicester for no longer listening to their elders.
The battle between young and ageing bulls is as old as time itself, but we have a new danger we did not have before.
In 2001 social media was not as influential. Today, a myth is half-way around the world with
the truth not only unable to catch up, but giving up completely. It is worse than the wild west because our thoughts, beliefs, anger, no matter on what they are based, have an outlet with the click of a button.
We do not think about the consequences. No one can be 100 per cent certain why things kicked off in Leicester.
Sources have told me it was a cricket match. Others say it was outsiders who do not understand the city or its relationships. It is easy to blame the far-right Hindutva, just as it is easy to blame Islamists.
The answer is probably more nuanced, with the real reasons buried, waiting to be discovered like a prospector mining for gold.
It is easy to blame, yet it is far more difficult to accept and take responsibility.
I am clear these tensions will go away. I am confident wiser heads will prevail.
But I do not see this happening unless the different groups speak with one another continually, with soft voices, respect and tolerance.