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 MEAFollowing India’s victory in the cricket match, social cohesion in Leicester began to fray further, suggests the report. Large celebratory crowds and car convoys took to the streets. Slogans included ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Pakistan Murdabad’. Violence, vandalism and assaults followed, resulting in injuries and arrests. The report notes that the communal dimension of the violence was evident, particularly in references to Muslims as ‘Pakistani’, despite most South Asian Muslims in Leicester being of Indian origin.The report also recounts an incident in which eggs were thrown at a Hindu household during Ganesh Chaturthi, an act seen by many Hindus as desecration. Subsequent retaliation by Hindu youths, largely from the Daman and Diu community, led to a Muslim man being very violently attacked in the early hours of September 5, 2022. His injuries required hospitalisation.Following this attack, concern and anger led large groups of Muslims to mobilise, who gathered over several consecutive nights from September 5 to 7 outside the Jame’ Masjid – with a twin purpose to discuss events and possible peaceful responses. However, some youths, numbering up to 100 and incited by a few individuals, broke away from the meeting despite many attempts by others to calm tensions.These breakaway youths, joined by others from surrounding streets, attacked mainly Hindu individuals and properties in the North Evington area. A Hindu man was stabbed by Muslim youth during these events, the report notes.Police responses drew criticism from both communities. Some Muslims described the response to their gatherings as heavy-handed and aggressive, while many Hindus criticised delays in police intervention when their homes were attacked. The report suggests that police engagement should have been more sensitive at the discussion stage when Muslim groups were gathering and more timely once violence escalated and Hindu residents’ homes were being attacked.This context frames the September 17 ‘Hindu solidarity march’. The march, which passed through areas where mostly Muslims live, was reportedly organised through WhatsApp groups and led by masked Hindu participants from Daman and Diu, India. The report states that some of the masked marchers were carrying weapons, including knives.According to the report, the march featured chants strongly associated with Hindu nationalism in India, including ‘Jai Shree Ram’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Jai Bharat Mata’. “All these chants would be unusual to hear as public chants in the UK, outside of Hindu-nationalist circles. While these three chants are not inherently Hindutva slogans, the grouping and the context of their use is highly significant,” the report states.The report characterises the march as an “aggressive, intimidating demonstration that had the characteristics of communalism. Several people perceived to be Muslim were attacked in and around Green Lane Road by marchers. Many Muslim and Hindu residents had to seek shelter from the violence on Green Lane Road”.In its key findings, the report, authored by Chetan Bhatt, Vedika Puri, Syed Fahad Kamal, S. Patel, Subir Sinha, Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves, Suresh Grover, Lisa Magarrell, Juan E. Méndez and Neelim Sultan, identifies the violent attack on May 22, 2022 against the young Muslim man as the principal trigger for the escalation that followed. For many Muslim groups, this incident marked the beginning of the sequence of events.The report clearly states that Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, was a significant factor in the September 17 march, in narratives following the late August incidents and in reactions to the violence that summer. It notes that Hindutva narratives gained international traction after the cricket match and intensified following the September 5-6 violence. Even if not all participants subscribed to Hindutva ideology, it influenced the character of the march.Also read: How the Leicester Communal Clashes Were Fuelled by Online Disinformation from IndiaThe report also refers to political Islamist influence but describes it as largely limited to a small number of local actors, national social media influencers and a few UK organisations.However, the report specifically states that “Hindutva narratives were international in scale and often coordinated in their approach, reflecting the fact that Hindutva is a state-backed international project”.The report identifies newly arrived members of the largely Hindu Daman and Diu community as “central actors” in events from May to September. It notes: “They lived in housing geographically positioned across perceived but settled ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ areas (Belgrave and Highfields). They were blamed for antisocial behaviour, unregulated religious celebrations, a culture of drinking, and harassment and provocations outside mosques. However, the same Daman and Diu communities faced severe socioeconomic hardship, including overcrowding, economic exploitation, caste-based discrimination, racist attacks and social marginalisation”.In the aftermath of the September 17 march, the report states that Hindutva-aligned groups met Members of Parliament (MPs) and other officials, framing the events as attacks solely targeting Hindus. The ‘Hindus under attack’ narrative was disseminated through organisations including Insight UK, the secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Hindus, the Henry Jackson Society and international pro-BJP media outlets.The report highlights that these groups also engaged in political lobbying to influence UK narratives and policy, including communications to MPs, protests outside liberal media offices, and coordinated online disinformation and ideological campaigns.An excerpt from the report’s Executive Summary, detailing some of the flashpoints that led to clashes and ill will between members of the Hindu and Muslim diaspora in Leicester.The report also highlights shortcomings in police handling of the events – including actions that could have prevented the incidents. It cites intelligence gaps, poor communication, inconsistent operational decisions and limited understanding of communal dynamics within South Asian communities.One of its many recommendations to prevent such violence in the future is “determined attention to recognising radical and militant Hindutva [Hindu nationalism, Hindu supremacism] as a form of ‘extremism’, like militant political Islamism and far-right white nationalism, that is an important threat to community unity and positive community relations”.It also recommends that a “historic meeting” be held in Leicester between local Hindu and Muslim leaders and set a “unique and powerful example, a landmark of what could be achieved if community leaders worked together”.The report further states that Hindutva ideology meets the UK government’s 2024 definition of extremism, including activities that ‘radicalise, indoctrinate and recruit others to an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance’, as well as attempts to glorify or excuse violence against minorities an minority institutions in India.