Leicester South Asians Ask How the City's Celebrated Shared Belonging Gave Way to 2022 Riots

A 2026 analysis from the think tank British Future is asking how Leicester — once celebrated around the world as a model of multicultural belonging among its South Asian communities — became the site of what it describes as the UK's largest ever riots between Hindus and Muslims in 2022. The same city's Hindu community continues to gather in force for major festivals, with hundreds marking Holi with bonfires, performances, and the coloured-powder celebrations that are central to the festival.

🤝 From Pride to Discord: Revisiting Leicester's Broken South Asian Belonging

British Future, the British think tank focused on identity and integration, published a piece on 26 February 2026 examining how Leicester — the UK's first city where no single ethnic group forms a majority — went from a globally admired example of multicultural coexistence to the site of what the article describes as the UK's largest ever riots between Hindu and Muslim residents in 2022. The analysis was written by Dr Avaes Mohammed, Project Manager of British Future's British South Asian Bridgers Project, drawing on conversations with people from South Asian communities in Leicester about what they believe needs to change. Dr Mohammed writes from personal experience of visiting the city. He describes the culture of shared belonging for which Leicester was once famous as having significantly influenced his most formative years. A particular highlight he recalls was Leicester's Diwali celebrations, which he describes as the largest outside of India and which attracted the whole city regardless of faith or cultural background. Coming from communities in the north of England that he describes as relatively more isolationist, he remembers being both excited and inspired by a city so relaxed in the ownership of each other's traditions. The analysis frames Leicester's situation as a question of urgent national importance. As the UK's first majority-minority city, Leicester should by rights have become a global model of multiculturalism given this tradition of cross-community participation. The British Future piece responds to a new SOAS report titled Better Together: Understanding the 2022 Violence in Leicester, launched by an independent panel to examine the roots of the unrest. Dr Mohammed argues that the question of how the UK's largest ever Hindu-Muslim riots could have taken place in Leicester is not simply a problem for those communities alone — it carries implications for how the whole country understands and tends to community relations across faith and ethnic lines. [3]

🎉 Hundreds Gather Across Leicester for Holi Bonfire, Performances, and Colour

Hundreds of people gathered in Leicester to celebrate Holi, the Hindu spring festival observed by millions around the world. The colourful festival commemorates the beginning of spring and the victory of good over evil, and Leicester's South Asian community turned out in force to mark it across two days of events. Ashok Karavadra, a representative of the Leicester Maher Community Association, described how the celebrations unfolded across the weekend. On Sunday, the community marked Holi with performances and a bonfire, two of the festival's traditional forms of observance. A separate event on Saturday featured the custom that has made Holi internationally recognised: the throwing of brightly coloured powder into the air. Karavadra said the participants had a fantastic time at the celebrations. The Leicester Maher Community Association's role in organising the festivities reflects the breadth of community infrastructure that South Asian organisations have built and maintained in the city over decades. Holi is one of the most widely observed Hindu festivals globally, its exuberant and colourful nature making it a gathering point not only for practising Hindus but for a wide range of people drawn to its communal spirit. The two-day format of Leicester's celebrations — with the bonfire and performances on Sunday and the colour event on Saturday — mirrors the multi-day observance of Holi that is traditional in many parts of India and across the South Asian diaspora. The event stands as a continuing marker of the vitality of South Asian cultural life in Leicester, a city with one of the most established Desi communities anywhere outside the Indian subcontinent, even as broader questions about inter-community relations remain unresolved. [7]

Sources: [3] British Future · [7] BBC