Leicesterਲੈਸਟਰ

Leicester is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands, England, the largest city in the East Midlands, with 368,571 residents in the 2021 census. Its Punjabi community is part of one of the most diverse cities in Britain: the census counted 16,451 Sikhs in Leicester, 4.46 per cent of the city, alongside the largest Indian ethnic population of any British city of its size, 126,421 people, and a Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan that has run since 1986.

Where is Leicester, and why do Punjabis live there?

Leicester stands on the River Soar, about 90 miles (140 km) north-northwest of London and 33 miles (53 km) east-northeast of Birmingham. It is one of the oldest cities in England: the Romans founded Ratae Corieltauvorum at the site around AD 47, it was one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw, and in the Victorian age it became known for hosiery and shoe manufacturing before its city status was restored in 1919. Since the mid-20th century, immigration from Commonwealth countries has made it an ethnically diverse, majority-minority city.

Sikhs have been settling in Leicester since the end of the Second World War, as Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara's own history puts it, and the opening of the city's first Sikh gurdwaras in 1960 reflects the growth of that early community, drawn by work in the city's hosiery, footwear and engineering trades. A second wave reshaped the community from the late 1960s: South Asians from East Africa, among them many Punjabi Sikhs, arrived in growing numbers, a movement made famous by the Asians expelled from Uganda in 1972. Their businesses rebuilt streets such as Belgrave Road, and their children and grandchildren are now the core of Sikh Leicester. The city is listed under Punjabi places in the United Kingdom.

What do the numbers say?

Leicester's population grew from 329,839 in the 2011 census to 368,571 in 2021. The Sikh count grew steadily across three censuses, from 11,796 in 2001 to 14,457 in 2011 and 16,451 in 2021, holding at 4.46 per cent of the city. No single group holds a majority: Christians were the largest religious group at 91,161, followed by Muslims at 86,443, Hindus at 65,821 and then Sikhs, in a city that has been in a majority-minority state since around 2008.

The Indian connection is the deepest in Britain outside London. The Indian ethnic group numbered 126,421 people in 2021, 34.30 per cent of Leicester, within an Asian total of 43.40 per cent, and 59,842 residents, 16.2 per cent of the city, were born in India. For language, the last full main language table opened for this entry is the 2011 census: Gujarati was the city's most common main language after English at 36,347 speakers, and Punjabi was third at 7,560 speakers, 2.40 per cent of residents aged three and over. No Leicester only Punjabi main language total from the 2021 census appears in the sources opened for this entry, so the 2011 figure is given here labelled as 2011 rather than updated by guesswork.

Gurdwaras: East Park Road and Holy Bones

Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara, at 106 East Park Road, is one of the oldest and best known Sikh temples in the city, serving the neighbourhoods east of the centre. Its own site records the outline of the whole community's history: settlement since the end of the Second World War, the first gurdwaras in 1960, and a Sikh population that had reached 14,457, or 4.4 per cent of the city, by 2011. On the other side of the centre stands the Guru Nanak Gurdwara on Holy Bones, a street named for the church and graveyard beside it, which normally sees more than 1,000 worshippers a day passing through for prayer, langar and sewa, selfless service.

Belgrave Road, in the north of the city, is Leicester's best known South Asian shopping street, known as the Golden Mile for its concentration of jewellers, fabric shops, sweet centres and restaurants. It was built as a shopping street above all by the East African Asian arrivals of the late 1960s and 1970s, and it remains the commercial face of Asian Leicester, Punjabi businesses among them, drawing customers from across the Midlands.

Vaisakhi and the Nagar Kirtan

Each spring Leicester holds one of Britain's oldest Sikh street processions. The annual Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan began in 1986 with a gathering of fewer than 1,000 Sikhs and now normally attracts around 30,000 worshippers from all around the United Kingdom, on a three-hour parade between the city's gurdwaras, beginning at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara on Holy Bones. Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara likewise describes the annual Vaisakhi celebrations and the march through the city centre streets as the moment the Sikh presence in Leicester is most evident, attracting thousands of people from across Leicester and the Midlands.

Leicester is the East Midlands home of Punjabi Britain, different in character from the West Midlands heartland: a smaller Sikh share than Wolverhampton or Birmingham, but set inside the most Indian city of its size in Britain, with gurdwara life running since 1960 and a Nagar Kirtan older than most in the country. For the full map, see Punjabi places in the United Kingdom.