– Mohammed Talha Siddi Bapa
In the concrete sprawl of New York City, where Wall Street’s towers shadow working-class tenements, a quiet revolution is underway. At the heart of this upheaval stands a 33-year-old Indian-origin politician, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, who has upset the political calculus of America’s largest city by clinching the Democratic primary for the 2025 mayoral race. If elected, he could become the city’s first Muslim, first South Asian, and one of the youngest mayors in its history.
What makes Mamdani’s victory particularly compelling for Indian readers is not just his origin or background – it is the irony that policies dismissed in India as “populist freebies” have formed the cornerstone of Mamdani’s progressive appeal in New York.
A Heritage of Ideas and Art
Zohran Mamdani was raised at the crossroads of art and intellect, deeply rooted in Indian soil yet shaped by global conscience. His mother, Mira Nair, an award-winning filmmaker of Malayali origin, was born in Rourkela, Odisha, and rose to international fame with films like Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding, and The Namesake, which brought Indian stories to the world with emotional authenticity. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, a Gujarati Muslim born in Mumbai and raised in Uganda, is a renowned scholar of colonialism and identity, now teaching at Columbia University. Their home bridged continents and conversations – cinema and scholarship, Kerala and Gujarat – giving Zohran a moral and cultural compass that now guides his politics in New York City.
Who is Zohran Mamdani?
Zohran Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1991, and migrated to New York City at the age of seven. Raised in Queens, Mamdani’s political awakening came not from elite institutions but from the lived realities of the city’s immigrant communities.
Before entering politics, Mamdani was a community organiser and also performed as a rapper under the name “Young Cardamom.” His early work, like the song Koolo Koolo that tackled sugar addiction in East Africa, hinted at the social conscience rooted in both art and activism. In 2020, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, representing the 36th District in Queens. His victory over a Democratic incumbent marked the beginning of a progressive wave that has now crested with his mayoral candidacy.
The Progressive Platform
What distinguishes Mamdani is not just his identity but his ideology. A self-avowed democratic socialist, he has drawn inspiration from figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His policy proposals have struck a harmony with New Yorkers fed up with spiralling rents, over-policing, and income inequality.
His campaign slogan, “A New York for the Many, Not the Millionaires,” echoes a sentiment that is simultaneously revolutionary and deeply familiar to working-class urban dwellers everywhere.
Here are some key planks of his platform:
- Rent Freeze & Public Housing Expansion: Proposes a city-wide rent freeze and building 200,000 units of deeply affordable housing.
- Free Bus Transit: Advocates for zero-fare buses across NYC – an idea once unthinkable in America’s capitalist heartland.
- Universal Childcare: Aims to establish publicly funded childcare centres across boroughs.
- City-Run Grocery Stores: Plans to open municipally operated grocery stores to counter food deserts and corporate price gouging.
- Wealth Redistribution: Advocates for shifting the property tax burden from working-class outer boroughs to wealthier Manhattan neighbourhoods.
A Coalition of the Marginalised
Mamdani’s support base is a cross-section of New York’s complex demographic landscape. young voters, immigrants, Muslims, South Asians, Latinos, and Black communities. His campaign successfully energised voters under 40, who made up nearly 40% of the early ballots. Organisations like “Hot Girls for Zohran” – a Gen-Z-led grassroots movement – went viral for their fusion of internet culture and progressive politics.
What’s more, his win has electrified South Asians and Muslims across America. In an era where global Islamophobia continues to rise, Mamdani’s unapologetically Muslim identity and progressive platform send a powerful message: inclusion doesn’t mean assimilation – it can mean transformation.
His Opponents
Mamdani’s main opponents include Andrew Cuomo, the former governor seeking political redemption after a scandal-led resignation, and Eric Adams, the incumbent mayor running as an independent. While Cuomo emphasises law and order and technocratic governance, Adams projects himself as a centrist capable of bridging communities. Both have accused Mamdani of being too radical, but their divided support base may ironically ease his path to victory.
The Indian Irony: Freebies There, Dignity Here
In India, such welfare measures – free electricity, subsidised food, or public transport – are often derided as part of a so-called “freebie culture” or populist appeasement, especially by elite voices who frame them as reckless sops rather than rights-based entitlements. Political analysts warn of “fiscal irresponsibility” and “voter dependency,” painting such schemes as undignified handouts.
Yet, in New York City – a global symbol of capitalism – these very policies are winning elections. Mamdani is not mocked for offering free bus rides or rent freezes; he is praised for restoring “dignity” to working people. Public childcare is framed not as charity, but as a feminist and economic necessity. City-run grocery stores are not signs of socialism’s failure, but tools to combat corporate monopolies and hunger.
The same wealth taxes that would cause outrage in Indian boardrooms are celebrated in Mamdani’s platform as redistributive justice.
Why the double standard?
In India, neoliberalism has successfully painted pro-poor welfare as lazy populism, while rewarding corporate loan waivers and tax breaks as “economic stimulus.” In contrast, Mamdani’s rise in the U.S. represents a pushback against precisely this mindset: that only the rich deserve dignity, and the poor must earn survival.
What Lies Ahead?
The road to City Hall is not guaranteed. Mamdani still faces a formidable challenge in the general election. Cuomo remains on the ballot as a third-party candidate, and Eric Adams is attempting a comeback. Both could split the vote, complicating Mamdani’s path to victory.
Yet, recent polls show Mamdani in a dead heat with Cuomo and ahead of Adams in a two-way race. Betting markets and political forecasts now rank him as the frontrunner – an extraordinary rise for someone who only became a U.S. citizen in 2018.
Should Mamdani win, he will not only make history but potentially shift the political conversation in major urban centres worldwide. His victory would challenge the idea that progressive policies are unsustainable and reaffirm the principle that the measure of a city is how it treats its most vulnerable.
A Lesson for India?
Mamdani’s story should give Indian political observers pause. The very policies denounced in Indian op-eds and television debates as “populist excesses” are being embraced in New York as solutions to inequality and injustice. What distinguishes Mamdani is not that he offers “freebies,” but that he offers a moral argument: that in a democracy, dignity is not a luxury – it is a right.
In a world increasingly defined by inequality, Mamdani’s campaign is not merely about governance – it is about reclaiming compassion in public life. For Indian voters and policymakers, his rise should spark reflection: if New York can imagine free public transport and childcare as civic responsibility, why must India see them as electoral bribery?
Perhaps the real question is not whether such policies are affordable – but whether we can afford to keep denying them.
