Seeing as Leicester is in the news I'd like to give some background info into the history of immigration into the UK but specifically, Leicester. The first real wave came in the 60s and 70s from the East African Indians (EAIs) and also Caribbean blacks. Starting from 1968, Kenya kicked out it's Indian community, followed by Uganda (due to Idi Amin) in 1972 and also Tanzania (a beautiful country such friendly people I recommend Indians to holiday there). Idi Amin gave 90 days for all Indians to leave, confiscated all Indian's hard earned businesses and assets, with a maximum of £50 to take out of Uganda. UK also initially refused to take Indians in despite having a full British passport.
Leicester City Council took out a full page advert in the Ugandan newspaper discouraging Indians to move to Leicester. In essence "fuck off, we're full."
Ironically this advert is the reason why so many EAIs came to Leicester!
Imagine, pre-internet, pre-mass immigration, empire still fresh, moving from a country you were happy in, where you'd built businesses, schools, hospitals, mandirs and families to a cold strange place, barely a penny to your name, housed in an army camp, full of racism, no vegetarian food, where many mums and grandparents didn't speak English, people trying to convert you to christianity and having to start from scratch.
The racism experienced by the first generation of immigrants is something I want to highlight, we're lucky not to have dealt with that hostility. The stories from the first gen EAIs of skinheads chasing you out of nighclubs after dancing with their girls, pubs refusing to serve you drinks - they got tough real quick. If they were still young this nonense the past few weeks would be put to bed in an instant.
Nevertheless they built their businesses, mandirs and families again and kept their culture to the point that Leicester has the biggest Diwali and Navratri celebrations outside India. The EAIs turned Belgrave/Melton Rd from a run-down dead end of town into a thriving area. The EAIs were mostly Gujaratis and Punjabis, a mix of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim - all lived in peace in East Africa and in my opinion one of the reasons Leicester has been a relatively peaceful city is because of the racism trumping any religious tensions (most of the Leicester locals were and still are wonderful I'd like to add). Also most who came to Leicester were business-minded so starting trouble wasn't the first priority like other types (e.g. Mirpuris) who wound up in Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham and East London.
Leicester itself was historically a working-class city, the poorest of of the 3 cities in the East Midlands (Notts and Derby) - it still remains one of the most deprived areas in the UK. There were strong right wing groups like the National Front back then. Still, it's been a Labour Party stronghold (been Labour since WW2). Naturally the first EAI waves voted Labour and not to be partisan there were many things to be grateful to Labour for. Now as EAIs have become more affluent many have swtiched to voting Tory and moved to LeicesterSHIRE or West London.
In the last 10-15 years there's been a huge demographic shift in Leicester. New wave of immigrants are Pakistani/Bangladeshi muslims, but also supplemented by Turks, Kurds, Albanians, Somalians and various Eastern Euros - these are the worst of the worst. Crime has soared, drugs and women covered in burkas are everywhere now. Do a street view of Narborough Road and count how many turk/kurd "hairdressers" aka drug money laundering businesses you laugh in disbelief - all have expensive cars parked outside. But this is Labour's new votebank. Anything to stay in power. Just recently the Mayor of Leicester Peter Soulsby rejected a £1 billion pound aid grant for the East Midlands (all 5 of the other Councils have agreed to it) because he didn't want to power share. He also put Leicester into lockdown and broke the rules himself to see his gf.
But Sir Peter has fired back with both barrels as he branded talk of £1 billion being on the table as “pure fantasy”
www.harboroughmail.co.uk
Claudia Webbe is MP of Leicester East - convicted of sexual harrassement and threatening an acid attack to another woman - is a known pro-paki anti-Indian anti-Hindu stooge. I spoken about her and the MP she replaced (Keith Vaz) in previous posts.
The new wave of immigrants from India are from a wider set of states. Gujaratis many from Daman & Diu, Tamils, Malayalis, and various other states but not (yet) enough to offset the muslim influx.
What happens in Leicester now let's see if troubles die down or not. Until now, I've never experienced any serious religious problems in this city It's actually been quite a shock to realise how Hindus are discriminated against in India itself. Thanks to the pro-India pro-Dharmic ecosystem I can say I'm more aware, but many simply don't know the reality yet. The worldwide anti-India narrative is quite something. I won't get into the coolie or not argument this post is already long enough, but if we can use the "Tebbit Test"
en.wikipedia.org
then I can say I and all or at least most in my family and community happily fail the Tebbit Test.
Hopefully this gives a little bit of historical insight into Leicester. Here are the archive videos of EAIs coming to UK for anyone who is curious to watch:
Travelling youtuber catches a glimpse of the EAIs that remained in Tanzania:
Tanzania's largest ethnic minority, the Indo-Tanzanian community has lived in the country for hundreds of years, some going back to even the Middle Ages. Ma...
www.youtube.com