Fifteen people were arrested on Monday, following weeks of unrest between Hindus and Muslims after the Asia Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan on August 28. “I’ve seen a wide variety of social media that is very, very, very distorting now and some of it is just outright lying about what was going on between different communities,” Peter Soulsby told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme. “There’s no obvious local cause for this,” Soulsby said, pointing to a distortion of events on social media and a concerted effort to bring people from as far away as Birmingham to raise tensions in “an otherwise very peaceful city ». Celebrations held after the cricket match in August later turned disorderly, a police spokesman said. “An incident was shared on social media stating that a Muslim man was attacked by Hindus. This was wrong – the victim was actually a Sikh and supported the same group as the people who attacked him,” the spokesman said. For several weeks, police have been trying to deal with misinformation as they find it, the spokesman said, adding: “Certainly, we believe it has been attributed to tensions in the community.” The latest unrest, described by locals as “unprecedented” in the most populous city in the east Midlands, erupted after unplanned protests on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Misinformation emerged as members of different communities reported acts against places of worship and people of faith, the mayor said. On Saturday, Leicestershire Police reported activity on social media citing attacks at a local mosque. “Officers on the ground have confirmed this is not true,” the force tweeted. As police quickly sought to set the record straight, the mayor told the BBC: “Social media is a world that’s maybe a bit wild out there.” Over the weekend, the streets rang out with a chant that has become synonymous with anti-Muslim violence in India – “Jai Shri Ram,” which translates from Hindi to “hail Lord Ram” or “victory to Lord Ram.” In videos released, a group of Hindu men were filmed walking past Green Lane Road, where there are several Muslim businesses and a Hindu temple nearby. Hindu and Muslim residents of the area told the Guardian they felt targeted, taunted and attacked. Polarization within Hindu-Muslim communities has worsened under India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has come under fire for his treatment of minorities, mainly Muslims, and for undermining the country’s secular foundations. Deceptive social media tactics used by the government have been described by experts as commonplace in India, where platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have come under scrutiny for allowing the spread of misinformation, harassment and violence. “In Leicester, very good relations between people of faith are ‘normal’,” said the mayor. “I think we’re all very confident that Leicester are resilient enough to be able to get back to normal very soon.” Gurharpal Singh, emeritus professor of Sikh and Punjabi studies at Soas University of London and visiting fellow at the University of Leicester, said Leicester was a model of multiculturalism, but there was a deep divide. “These heightened tensions are now I think part of a larger social change that’s happening within the city,” said Singh, who has lived in the city intermittently since 1964. He pointed to changes in the city’s minority ethnic demographics and increased deprivation exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. “Also, perhaps one shouldn’t rule out the growing influence of homeland politics, you know, the mobilization of the diaspora by the BJP [Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party].” While the events on the ground remain unclear, Singh said the Indian media reported on Leicester in highly communal terms, creating events like the communal riots in India. “The underlying socioeconomic tensions are there, and then they’re exacerbated by fringe groups using community discourse,” he said. On Monday, India’s High Commission condemned the violence in Leicester and the “vandalism of places and symbols of the Hindu religion”. He said the matter had been discussed by British authorities and called for immediate action against those involved in the attacks.
