Leicester's South Asian community: 2022 unrest inquiry and royal Holi visit
A landmark SOAS panel report, Better Together: Understanding the 2022 Violence in Leicester, has examined the inter-community clashes that pitted Hindu and Muslim residents against each other in what became the UK's largest-ever riots of their kind, prompting British Future's South Asian Bridgers Project to engage community members directly on what must change. The breakdown shocked a nation that had long pointed to Leicester — home to the UK's largest Diwali celebrations outside India — as proof that multicultural belonging could work at scale. Against that difficult reckoning, March 2026 brought a contrasting headline: the Princess of Wales traveled to the city to celebrate Holi alongside Leicester's British Indian community, underscoring both the enduring cultural vitality of its South Asian residents and the continuing work of rebuilding civic trust.
🤝 South Asian Bridgers Project examines the collapse of Leicester's shared belonging
British Future's South Asian Bridgers Project, led by Dr. Avaes Mohammed, has been speaking directly with South Asian community members in Leicester following the 2022 inter-community unrest that shook the city's long-celebrated reputation for multicultural coexistence. Dr. Mohammed's published reflections accompany the launch of the SOAS report Better Together: Understanding the 2022 Violence in Leicester, a panel inquiry examining the roots of the clashes and what the city must do next. The report and the Bridgers Project together represent a serious community-grounded effort to understand what went wrong in a place once held up as a model for the UK and beyond. Leicester's Diwali celebrations are recognized as the largest outside India, drawing residents of every faith and background in a tradition that spoke to genuine civic openness. Dr. Mohammed, from what he describes as the more isolationist mill-town communities of northern England, recalls visits to Leicester family as formative precisely because the city felt so different — relaxed and joyful in its ownership of each other's traditions. As the UK's first city where no single ethnic group forms a majority, Leicester had the foundation to become an international example of pluralist civic life. That legacy makes the 2022 events all the more urgent: the riots were described as the UK's largest-ever inter-community clashes between Hindus and Muslims, and the South Asian Bridgers Project is now taking the question of what fractured that social fabric directly into community conversations. [1]
🪔 Princess of Wales celebrates Holi at Aakash Odedra's studio with Leicester's Indian community
On March 5, 2026, Catherine, Princess of Wales, visited Leicester to celebrate Holi with the city's British Indian community, drawing national media attention to a community navigating a pivotal moment in its civic history. The visit centered on The Aakash Odedra, the studio of celebrated British Indian contemporary dancer Aakash Odedra, whose internationally recognized work fuses Indian classical dance traditions with contemporary movement and who stands as a significant figure in Britain's South Asian cultural landscape. In keeping with Holi's tradition of wearing white before the throwing of colored powder, the Princess wore a bespoke Chris Kerr ensemble — a pleated cream dress originally worn at her 2023 Christmas carol service — and completed the look with Sézane Dina earrings and an Emmy London Natasha clutch. Upon her arrival, community members presented her with a mala, a necklace of roses and pearls that carries deep significance in Indian culture as a gesture of respect and honor toward a distinguished guest. W Magazine reported the exchange as a warm expression of welcome from Leicester's Indian community to a royal visitor who arrived with evident cultural awareness. Fashion commentators noted that her deliberate choice of white — a knowing nod to the festival's sartorial tradition — exemplified the thoughtful wardrobe rewearing shared with Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II. For Leicester's South Asian community, the royal presence at a Holi celebration offered public recognition and cultural affirmation at a meaningful time. [7]
Sources: [1] British Future · [7] W Magazine