If he wins the general election in November, Zohran Mamdani is New York City’s first South Asian mayor and could become India’s first origin.
But the same identity that pioneered him in American politics exposed him to public protests within India and its diaspora.
Since Mamdani won a fierce victory in the Democratic mayoral primary on June 24th, his campaign has overcome a vicious flood.
Experts say the attack reflects tensions that have arisen amongst Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters and his leadership, particularly among critics of religious minorities.
Many of these attacks are entrenched in the religion of the Mamdani. The age of 33 is a Muslim. Some commenters accuse the mayor of wanting to be “jihad” and “Muslim.” Others call him anti-Hindu and anti-Indian.
Kayla Bassett, research director at the Washington-based think tank, Organized Centre for Hate Research, considers attacks on Mamdani as a way to attack Muslim communities more widely.
“This isn’t just one individual,” she said. “It’s about promoting stories that cast Muslims as essentially questionable or non-Americans.”
Rebound from Modi’s party
As he works to increase support among New York voters, the story could potentially have consequences for Mamdani’s campaign.
Mamdani faces competition from a more established name in politics in November. He is expected to face incumbent mayor Eric Adams in the final vote. His rival in the Democratic primary, former governor Andrew Cuomo, has yet to rule out an independent run.
Mayor’s candidates have vocally condemned human rights abuses, including places like Gaza and India.
That shameful attitude has won criticism not only from his rival candidates, but also from overseas.
For example, members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are one of the voices that have denounced Mamdani’s remarks and questioned fitness in the mayor’s seat.
For example, Mamdani is a BJP member of the Congress posted on social media that she “sounds more like Pakistani than India.”
“What happened to his Hindu identity and pedigree,” she asked, pointing to the Hindu roots of her mother, director Mira Naia. “Now he is ready to wipe out the Hinduism.”
Shortly after Mamdani’s major victory, India’s well-known professional BJP news channel Aaj Tak also aired a segment claiming it had received funding from an organization promoting the “anti-Indian” agenda.
It also warned of a growing Muslim population in New York City. This is argued by footage of a woman wearing a hijab.
However, some of the backlash comes from sources close to home.
The New Jersey-based group named Cuomo’s Indian Americans said, “Save NYC from the Global Intifada. Please reject the mam dani.”
Critics of human rights abuse
Many of the pushbacks can be linked to Mamdani’s voice criticism, especially Hindu nationalism and Modi.
In 2020, Mamdani took part in a Times Square demonstration against a temple built in 1992 at the site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodaya, which was destroyed by Hindu extremists.
“I am here today to protest the dismantling of India’s BJP government and Babri Masjid,” he said.
Then, in 2023, Mamdani read aloud notes from imprisoned Indian activists before visiting New York City.
The activist Umar Khalid has been jailed since 2020 without trial on terrorist accusations after giving a speech criticizing the Modi government.
Recently, at the city hall for mayoral candidates in May, Mamdani was asked if he would meet with Modi if the Prime Minister visits the city again. Mamdani said he wouldn’t do that.
“This is a war criminal,” he replied.
Mamdani pointed to Modi leaders in India’s Gujarat during the 2002 religious riots. Modi has been criticized for turning a blind eye to violence, which killed more than 1,000 people.
In the aftermath, Modi was denied a US visa for “serious violation of religious freedom.”
“Narendra Modi helped to adjust what was a massive massacre of Muslims in Gujarat, unless they even believe that there are already Muslims in Gujarat,” Mamdani told Town Hall. “It’s a shock to them that when they tell someone I’m me, that’s even true.”
Class and Religion Barriers
According to Rohit Chopra, a communications professor at Santa Clara University, it was a consistent criticism of Modi that targeted Mamdani for rage from Hindu rights.
“Among Hindu rights is the 2002 project of political management of memory. This silence about Modi has been denied a visa to enter the United States,” Chopra said.
The professor also said class fragmentation among Hindu Americans could also promote skepticism about Mamdani.
Hindu Americans are relatively privileged minorities in terms of socioeconomic status. The Pew Research Center estimates that 44% of Asian American Hindus enjoy family incomes of more than $150,000, with six in 10 earning graduate degrees.
That relative prosperity can be translated into social barriers, Chopra said.
“They don’t even identify with other Hindu Americans who may come from a very different kind of class background. They may be working as taxi drivers, or dishwashers, or other blue-collar jobs,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Sitra Vijayan, a New York-based author and founder of the Police Project for digital magazines, has noticed many lines of attack on the Mamdani Centre for his identity.
“Mamdani is an elected leader who is Muslim and Muslim,” she said.
She noted that other Muslim politicians, including US Congress members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, have sparked similar backlash in denunciation of Modi against violence in Gujarat.
However, Mamdani’s family has ties to the area.
“In Mamdani’s case, he is Muslim and he is African, but his father is Gujarati descent and he spoke openly about the Gujarat pogrom,” Vijayan said.
The victory of the earthquake
Despite the online backlash, experts and local organizers believe the Mamdani campaign can mobilize Indian-American voters and other members of the South Asian diaspora, which are traditionally Democratic-leaning.
The Pew Research Center estimates that there are 710,000 Indians and Indian Americans living in the New York City area, the majority of the US metropolitan centers.
Preliminary results from the mayor’s major show in June that Mamdani has gained a big hit in strong Asian neighborhoods, including Bangladesh, Jackson Heights and Parkchester.
The final tally of the optional votes ranked earlier this week was released on July 1, showing that Mamdani stepped out his closest rival, Cuomo, by 44% to 56%.
“I’ve heard that his victory is called an “earthquake,” said Arvind Rajagopal, a professor of media studies at New York University. “He can speak not only Spanish, but Hindi, Urdu and passable Bangla. Candidates with this level of depth and width are rare these days.”
Rajagopal added that Mamdani’s decision to own his Muslim identity has become his asset in the campaign trajectory, particularly in the current political climate.
With President Donald Trump in his second term, many voters are blessed with anti-Muslim rhetoric and policy that comes with his first four years at the White House.
At the time, Trump called for “a complete and complete closure of Muslims entering the United States,” saying they represented “an influx of hatred” and “danger.”
“The Trump moment is a complete answer for Mamdani,” Rajagopal said. He called Mamdani’s success a “big reality check for Hindu rights.”
Whatever the backlash mum ticks faced by Hindu groups, Jagpreet Singh is skeptical of its impact on New York City.
“I can assure you – it’s not coming from within the city,” said Singh, political director of Drum Beats, where Desis, the sister organization of social justice organizations, is standing up and running.
The group was the first in the city to support the mayor’s candidacy.
From the beginning of the campaign, Singh pointed out that Mamdani reached out to the working-class Hindu community “in a real way.”
This includes visiting Durga Temple in Ridgewood and Nepal Cultural Centre and speaking at events in the Hindu communities in Guyana and Trinidad, Singh pointed out. During his time as a state assembly member, Mamdani also promoted a law that would allow Diwali, a Hindu festival of light, to be a state holiday.
At the Diwali celebration last year, Singh said that Mamdani “who took part in the lighting of Diyas, spoke on stage and told her that her mother’s background was someone who was a Hindu faith.”
For Singh, the message was clear. A South Asian group in New York City, including Hindu Americans, “adopted him as their own.”
