Zohran Mamdani demonstrated three qualities by becoming the Mayor Elect of New York on 05 November 2025. He is going to be the youngest mayor ever. He is an African born through his father and he has an Indian origin through his mother. To top all three, he has inherited literary capabilities from his father, who is a writer from South Africa, Mahmood Mamdani, and inherited artistic talents from Mira Nair, a filmmaker from Punjab in India. At thirty-four, he is a well-educated and spirited young person who proposed a socialist agenda to the people of New York to stand with migrant workers and LGBTQ people, and is a staunch critic of Israel and the American policy of supporting that country. More importantly, he is a strong critic of President Trump and his policies.
Young Mamdani attracted worldwide attention when a video of him eating with his hand became public, and there was severe criticism from the right wing politicians and some sociologists. US Congressman Brandon Gill called him an ‘inexperienced radical’ and reportedly added, ‘Civilised people in America don’t eat like this… if you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the third world.’ Mamdani faced the criticism as an attack on his identity rather than a legitimate issue. He added further that the criticism was racial and an affront to the common people who are downtrodden. He said that he would continue to do so because it is a method of eating of the common people all over the world.
One is reminded of Rani Mukherjee’s role as an Indian woman, who was disapproved of by the state for feeding the child with her hands, and it is important to remember that the actress won the best actress award for the year. The film Mrs.Chatterjee vs. Norway was made taking in the high-profile case of Sagarika Chakravarti, whose children were taken away because Norwegian authorities objected to practices like feeding the children by hand and having them sleep in the parents’ bed. This led to the children being placed in foster care and the parents being declared ‘unfit’. This was seriously dealt with by the governments of Norway and India until the children were repatriated to the mother. She now works in India with her parents assisting her to look after the children. Therefore, it is understandable that Zohran Mamdani’s defence of his eating with his hand was not despicable for many New Yorkers, particularly for the large number of South Asians;otherwise, they would not have voted for him, that too, more than fifty percent of them.
The right wing politicians tried to defeat him by labelling him a communist, which did not sell much with the public, as was shown in the voting pattern. More than eighty lakhs of people live in New York, and it is one of the richest cities in the world. Donald Trump himself was brought up in New York, of course in different circumstances in comparison with Zohran Mamdani. Trump’s threats to cut federal funds if Zohran Mamdani won did not scare the people of New York from electing Mamdani.
A few years ago, when Mahmood Mamdani published his book ‘Neither settler nor native’, he dedicated it to his son. In his speech he wished that his son would learn how to interact with the world and become a model for others by opening and fighting out new routes to be with them. Zohran Mamdani reached New York from Cape Town in South Africa when he was seven years old. Though he was under the guidance of the parents, he loved to make his own decisions and pave his way for his progress independently. With an initiative of starting new things, which he showed in his Bronx School days and later at Bowdoin College, where he graduated in African studies, Zohran Mamdani started a movement titled ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’. He placed himself on the side of migrants who were being evicted, and his experience in its processes brought him to political work with an attitude to support the poor and the common people. While he got his American citizenship in 2018; in December 2024, he married Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist who also believes in the need for supporting the poor and the emigrants.
What is most interesting is the stand taken by Zohran Mamdani which projects his personality and his courage. In his speech after victory, he addressed President Trump who opposed him and also threatened him and his people with dire consequences if he won. He told Trump publicly in that celebration meeting that none of Trump’s tricks would work with the New York mayor in the future. He declared that he intends to implement the promises like free bus travel for the poor, support for migrant labourers and care for ordinary children.
Zohran Mamdani did not hide his South Asian origins. In his speech he referred to Jawahar Lal Nehru’s speech ‘Tryst With Destiny’.While he completed his speech and was descending the steps, a Hindi song was heard from the backdrop. Both showed his courage to declare publicly that he is a man of South Asian origin and that he is not ashamed of it. He condemned the attitude of the rich who have higher level connections to put down the common people whom he named; the workers in the warehouses whose fingers are broken, the weak hands holding the delivery bike handles, the hands that got burnt marks by working in kitchens, and such hands that were never given power. Now it is time for them to assert and take power to look after themselves.
Zohran Mamdani is a new phenomenon of a New Yorker politician in the United States where an exactly opposite New Yorker politician is doing the opposite of the country’s president. Here is a young son of the entire South Asians, indeed a blazing sun, rising in a highly dominated right wing America, probably a model for many other countries.
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Prof. SunneyTharappan, is Director of College for Leadership and HRD, Mangaluru. He trains and writes and lives in Mangaluru. Email:tharappans@gmail.com