When Zohran Mamdani made history this week by becoming the first South Asian mayor of New York, he quoted one of modern India’s founding fathers in his acceptance speech and walked off the stage to the sounds of a thumping Bollywood banger.
The Muslim son of Indian-origin immigrants, the win is a powerful rebuke of US President Donald Trump, who has sought to drastically curb immigration to the United States, and takes on a greater meaning in a city still contending with the deep scars of post 9/11 Islamophobia.
But the aftershocks of his success are also being felt more than 8,000 miles away in cities across the world’s most populous country, where his ascent is both celebrated and criticized.
“We have been denied the limelight for a long time,” said 48-year-old Gulfam Khan Hussain from the Indian city of Mumbai.
People in New York come out to support Zohran Mamdani, who won the mayoral election in New York Tuesday. Andrea Renault/STAR MAX/AP
It’s “really nice to see someone from the South Asian … origin has come this far,” artist Tanya Lalwani said.
Mamdani’s victory places him at the forefront of a global cohort of diaspora leaders who have shattered political ceilings in
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