Days of South Asians being ignored and erased in New York politics are gone, says Zohran Kwame Mamdani

In a stunning victory, Indian-American lawmaker Zohran Kwame Mamdani has defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor, shaking up the city's political establishment.

The 33-year-old state assemblyman, a proud democratic socialist, was declared victorious Tuesday night after a tightly contested race.

"In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done. My friends, it is done," Mamdani said in a post on X. "And you are the ones who did it. I am honoured to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City."

Here’s a 2020 interview Mamdani gave to TOI's

Neelam

Raaj, offering an insightful look into his political career:
Congrats on your win. How does it feel to be the first Indian American in the New YorkAssembly?

Thank you so much! I feel two very contrasting emotions. The first is excitement — that the days of South Asians being ignored and erased from the political fabric of our city are now in the past. The second is anger — that it took until 2020 for a South Asian to hold elected office in NYC is an indictment of the status quo, one that has held power at the expense of the very communities that help to make this city what it is.

Tell us a little about your campaign. How was it different from other incumbents? I believe you didn’t take any funds from corporates?

One way our campaign was unique was the way in which we were committed to speaking to voters who are typically excluded from local politics. Political consultants regularly advise campaigns to focus on “prime voters” — voters who regularly vote in primary elections. We, however, wanted to expand our focus to include South Asian voters who had not voted because we understood that people often don’t vote if they don’t see themselves or the concerns of their communities on the ballot. I studied the entire voter roll of our district, parsed through more than 55,000 names, identified the South Asian voters and included them as part of our outreach, regardless of their voting history. We spoke about issues that disproportionately impact our community — such as the economic plight of taxi drivers — and did so in the languages of our homes, sending mailers in Urdu, Hindi, Nepali, Tibetan, Punjabi,

Gujarati

, and Bangla.

Like other campaigns backed by the NYC-branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, we also rejected money from real estate developers, corporations, and police unions. Our slogan was Roti and Roses — a tweak on the old labour demand for Bread and Roses, that which is necessary to survive and that which is necessary to thrive. I tweaked it because I wanted to also make clear that this was a campaign that is both fighting for that very same demand as well as seeking to rectify the historic erasure of desi communities from our city and state legislatures.

You’re backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. How would you explain democratic socialism?

As democratic socialists, we believe that the state should provide whatever is necessary for its people to live a dignified life. Typically, dignity is thought of through the provision of the “big 3”: housing, healthcare, and education. Yet this

pandemic

has made clear how much more is necessary — we all need internet, childcare, public transit, and more. These should not be up for debate because we see what happens when we let the market be the sole determinant of the distribution of dignity. It picks and chooses people who can survive and people who can thrive. We argue that not only does every single one of us deserve dignity but that our future as a whole is built on the notion of solidarity.

What’s behind the growing interest in socialism among young people in the US? Do you think the pandemic will lend more urgency to questions about a more equitable economic system?

I think that Bernie Sanders’ 2016 run for president had a lot to do with it — he showed that you could not just hold a fundamental belief in people over profit, you could build a national coalition around it, simultaneously expand the political imagination of millions, and do it all while openly identifying yourself as a democratic socialist. And yes, I absolutely think that the pandemic will do just that — it already has. This crisis has made it clearer than ever that our health, and our lives, are intertwined regardless of how much we may prize individualism as a nation. To fight this disease, we must practice solidarity. As a result of these last few months, there are far more people open to questioning the market’s stranglehold over basic goods such as housing and healthcare, and calling for solutions that understand the source of the crisis as capitalism, instead of simply this disease.

With Mira as mom, you must have watched a lot of Hindi movies. What’s your favourite Mira Nair movie and why?

Mississippi Masala

. It’s not just a fantastic film, it’s also the reason that I’m alive — my mother met my father while she was researching for it. They say art can change lives, well, it can also give you one!

Your rap video with Madhur Jaffrey was quite a hit. Does this mean goodbye to your rapper avatar Mr Cardamom?
I was once Young Cardamom, then Mr Cardamom, why not Assemblyman Cardamom?