A charismatic 33-year-old Indian-American politician from New York called Zohran Kwame Mamdani is creating waves of upset – both in his home country and in India – but for entirely different reasons.
In America, it’s his politics. He describes himself as a democratic socialist, is an outspoken critic of President Trump’s authoritarianism, and has taken a highly visible and unequivocally articulated stand against Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In India, meanwhile, the upset is because he is Muslim.
Mamdani, the son of Indian-American filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, caused a shock by defeating the establishment favourite, 68-year-old former Governor Andrew Cuomo, to become the Democratic Party candidate for the mayoral elections in November. He has won the endorsements of Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as two of the city’s most veteran Jewish pro-Israel Democratic politicians, Chuck Schumer and Jerry Nadler.
Mamdani is not unaccustomed to electoral politics nor to unseating veteran politicians. He was elected unopposed to the New York State Assembly from Queens in 2020 and again in 2022 and 2024, after defeating the four-term incumbent Democrat candidate in the primary of June 2020.
But the reason he has so upset US politics is because he has not only toppled “one of the biggest names in New York politics”, but did so with avowed policy positions that usually finish an election bid even before it gathers steam.
Mamdani campaigned on a platform of housing reform, making New York affordable for those at the bottom, police and prison reform, free public transport, and city-run grocery shops, one in each borough to drive down the cost of food so that people can afford to eat better. These are socialist ideas that have drawn the ire of billionaires like Bill Ackman and Elon Musk.
In a campaign video in Hindi drawing on popular memes, aimed at the Indian and Pakistani voters of New York, Mamdani used the trio of words Indira Gandhi made famous – ‘Roti Kapada aur Makaan’ – to explain how he was going to make New York affordable, and took the opportunity to explain ranked choice voting.
On Israel and Palestine, he has spoken his mind, taking a stand that is diametrically opposite to the usual line that almost all US politicians follow. He has spoken out against Israel, calling for a boycott of trade links with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and is an avowed activist for Palestinian rights. He went so far as to say in a TV debate that he would not travel to Tel Aviv and that he would seek the arrest of Benyamin Netanyahu should he visit New York. (On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court in the Hague had issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, among others.)
That Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary despite his left-leaning, pro-Palestinian politics is a stunning turnaround for America. As Britain’s Guardian put it in an opinion piece by Bhaskar Sunkara , Mamdani “offered New Yorkers a political revolution – and won”.
But not before all the usual epithets – “communist lunatic”, “radical leftie”, “exuberant disconnect with actual budgets”, and many more – were directed at him. Throughout the campaign though, Mamdani offered a counter by always being impeccably turned out in business suit and tie.
But perhaps what won Zohran Mamdani his moment of success, apart from the huge grass-roots support he enjoyed, was the lesson he learned from talking to people who had become disenchanted enough with politics-as-usual to vote for Trump as an act of angry defiance. The reality was that people wanted nothing more than for their lives to change for the better and Mamdani captured that desire with his emphasis on affordability. As former Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in a tweet, it was a “blaringly loud message to those in the Democratic establishment”.
After his win, he responded to Trump’s “communist lunatic” jibe by promising to “focus on an economic agenda, ensuring that people can do more than just struggle” and paying for his socialist agenda with taxes on the very rich.
But why the upset in India?
One would have expected India to applaud the success of an Indian-origin American with mixed Punjabi and Gujarati parentage. Sadly, much of the commentary, but especially the reaction among right-wing commentators, dwelt on one attribute of Zohran Mamdani – his Muslim faith. That was enough for Kangana Ranaut to tell NDTV that he “sounded more Pakistani than Indian”. Not to be outdone, Congress’ Abhishek Singhvi said, “When Mamdani opens his mouth, Pakistan’s PR team takes the day off.” India Today ran a whole segment on Mamdani, accusing him of playing to a vote bank and talking up his Muslim identity, with Gaurav Sawant listing Mamdani’s many alleged faults.
For India’s media commentators, Muslim means Pakistani and that’s enough to damn Mamdani.
It was left to the mainstream media elsewhere to set Zohran Mamdani’s victory in context. For Britain’s The Independent newspaper, Mamdani’s win raises the hope that progressive ideas can win elections. For The Economist, it was a fight between “left and centre in which the centre could not hold”. It was also a battle where big money behind Cuomo whose backers included Bill Ackman and Mike Bloomberg lost to popular fundraising efforts. The BBC presented a rounded view of the shock result, quoting from political big-hitters and strategists who suggested that something had changed in Americans’ mood that allowed the “unthinkable” to happen.
But perhaps the real disappointment in India’s media coverage of the Mamdani story was the opportunity lost to explain two important ideas.
Firstly, in America, local politics and mayoral elections matter. That is where politicians of the future cut their teeth and make their mark. As mayor, if he gets elected in November, Mamdani will run a city with a budget of more than US $100 billion, more than all but a handful of American states. In contrast India’s biggest city, Mumbai, has not had a mayor since March 8, 2022. Civic leadership matters.
Secondly, that in America the politics of ideas matter more than the politics of identity. In America, the commentary from the mainstream media has been about his ideas, it is only the fringe social media right wing that has focused on his identity as a Muslim. In India, it has been the opposite, all the usual mainstream TV channels focusing on a religious identity of the candidate, leaving it to online new media channels – like this piece in The Wire, or this account of his campaigning style, and the present essay – to discuss the broader takeaways from Zohran Mamdani’s success.
This is yet another instance of the superficial populism that drives mainstream media in India. Until that changes, Indian politics will be mired in futile and divisive debates around the religious identity of the personalities involved, leaving little scope for informed debate around principles and ideas.
This story has been republished from Newslaundry.
Jammi N Rao is a retired public health physician and epidemiologist. He has particular skills in data science, medical research ethics, evaluation of research proposals, critical appraisal of evidence, and policy development. He devotes his spare time to reading and commenting on public affairs.
Views expressed are the author’s own.