Photo: scenes from Leicester, UK, where a group of Hindus and Muslims clashed.
(Credit: Video screengrab/CC)
Shauqeen Mizaj
It is no news that Indian Muslims have been facing outright persecution in all forms under the present BJP-led government in India for some time. Neither the government nor the concerned leaders have done anything so far to protect the people of the minority community, whose marginalisation is now almost complete.
This tide of Hindutva nationalism, which is purely fascist in its ideologies, has already swept across the city of Leicester and the Midlands. Leicester, which has the second-highest percentage of Hindu residents and the largest (+2.7 percentage point) increase in Hindu identification (currently 17.9 percent, up from 15.2 percent in 2011).
People from different communities and countries have coexisted peacefully here for decades, and according to the latest census data, Leicester is one of the first cities in the UK with no ethnic group majority.
It came as a shocking blow to residents when clashes broke out on the city’s streets between the Hindu and Muslim communities after a cricket match between India and Pakistan held in the UAEs on August 27. India secured a win against Pakistan in the Asia Cup T20 tournament in Dubai. Eight people were arrested on ‘suspicion of assault and violent disorder’ according to the English media.
What ensued were mass mobilisations, vandalism of properties, and physical attacks against both Hindus and Muslims, along with scuffles with the Leicestershire police. The riots that began in late August continued through September, resulting in 47 arrests, according to the police.
On September 17, a mob of Hindu men wearing balaclava face masks with their hoods pulled up, went on an unplanned protest through the city’s Green Lane Road, a Muslim-dominated part of Leicester, chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’, a woman who witnessed the march told the BBC. Soon, a counterprotest was organised by a group gathered outside a Hindu temple. It soon turned into a scuffle, with bottles being thrown at the police and several people being injured.
The scenes in Leicester resembled the now familiar situation in India, where incidents of communal violence, particularly against Muslims, are the norm.
Both the Indian and Pakistani embassies issued statements regarding the riots and the damage incurred by their respective diasporic communities. According to The New York Times, India’s High Commission in London issued a statement condemning the ‘vandalization of premises and symbols of Hindu religion’, with no mention of violence that also targeted Indian Muslims.
The attacks took place not only on the ground but also in the social-cyber domain. Malicious disinformation, hostile rhetoric, memes and videos were shared by polarising elements on social media, along with blame games and numerous calls for violence, further inflaming the already volatile situation.
According to the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) at Rutgers University, there were an estimated 500 inauthentic Twitter accounts that called for violence, promoted memes, and created incendiary videos during the Leicester riots. Many of these accounts that amplified the tensions originated in India, say the researchers. The NCRI collected data for the period between August 27 — one day prior to the India vs. Pakistan cricket match and September 19, from Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram concerning the incidents in Leicester.
According to the findings, malicious narratives, bot activity, and cyberswarming of Islamophobic and Hinduphobic tropes spilt over into real-world violence and vandalism. The bot accounts that disseminated anti-Muslim and anti-Hindu messages were identified based on the time of account creation and the number of repeated tweets, with some tweeting 500 times per minute, say the researchers.
Among the most retweeted content that levelled identity attacks, NCRI found that the blame was placed on ‘Muslims by a concentrated but highly retweeted network coming from India.’
The NCRI report recommends ‘urgent monitoring of the networks and online influence involved in the Leicester riots’. According to the research, ‘the conspiracies about ‘Hindutva’ dominance are likely to increase dramatically in the coming months,” and the violence was “highly replicable.”
“Our research finds that both domestic networks of assailants and foreign actors now compete to use social media as a weapon in the midst of heightened ethnic tensions,” said Joel Finkelstein, founder of NCRI.
In the age of social media, the boundaries between insiders and outsiders cease to exist. Technology has made it easier for people residing in different parts of the world to collaborate, coordinate, and launch protests and attacks, as well as egg each other on. Fake, doctored, and out-of-context images and video clips are widely shared to establish narratives that threaten the peace and harmony of a country or a region.
Claudia Webbe, MP for Leicester East, told Bloomberg News that the riots were undoubtedly sparked by social media.
“You’ve got these overseas influences who are trying to drive political hate and the desire to sow division,” she said. She issued an appeal for calm on Twitter and urged the people to work together “to share the message of tolerance” to bring the communities together. NCRI findings suggest that “amplification networks in India are feeding the fire of populist, xenophobic, and sensationalist tropes to opportunistically stoke defensiveness and hypernationalism in the face of attacks against diasporic communities.”
India-Pakistan cricket matches are often known to raise tension between the fans of both countries. Leicester has Britain’s highest proportion of S Asians, with 13 per cent Muslims and 12.3 per cent Hindus. According to recent government statistics, 22.3 per cent are of Indian origin, and 1.9 per cent are from Pakistan.
The toxic politics currently being played out in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which has led to the persecution of Muslims and other religious minorities, has contributed to the growing tensions between British Muslims and Hindus.
It is worth considering why a cricket match between two South Asian countries, India and Pakistan, held in a Gulf country, would lead to street clashes in the UK’s Leicester. The spread of Hindutva, the right-wing divisive ideology endorsed by Modi – across the broader Indian diaspora is the new factor that could deteriorate peaceful community relations in Leicester. The clashes have tainted the harmonious image of Leicester. It is a wake-up call for the citizens to ponder the happenings. Or else, the wave of Hindu nationalism that has gripped India will soon put down roots in Britain.
