He’s 33. He met his wife on the dating app Hinge. He appears on TikTok videos preaching rent freezes, renewable energy in public schools, and minimum wage rises. He’s unabashedly an immigrant. Donald Trump called him “a 100% Communist Lunatic”. He might be the mayor of New York City come November, but for now, he’s the person disrupting American politics and dominating political discourse.
He’s Zohran Mamdani. But what is it about him that has resonated with Indian-origin youth globally?
The Policies, The Person
Mamdani’s policy platform is what every millennial cheekily aspires to be: infuriating to the older, richer, more conservative demographic.
A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani primarily wants to ease cost-of-living pressures. His policies include making bus trips and childcare free, rental price control and wage increases, and building 200,000 units of affordable housing.
@zohran_k_mamdani Are you ready to win a city we can afford?
He plans to fund his policies through measures like a two percent income tax on New York residents earning over US$1 million, raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5%, and better fine collection practices. His policies are not perfect; some will need support from the New York State government, and economists say he will need to raise US$70 billion for his housing plans. Yet this bold approach to improving living standards has won hearts.
And Zohran himself has too. Unlike his political rivals, he’s successfully branded himself as a candidate in touch with the people. He looks just as comfortable in a cafe sipping matcha as he would in a Congressional office. His passionate and personable demeanour, projected through a well-organised social media campaign, has seen a meteoric surge in his popularity.
Most importantly, Mamdani has overcome the discourse surrounding him. Politicians and political commentators have delighted in criticising his skin colour, Indian heritage, Muslim faith and activism. The wealthy elite have offered millions to rivals running against him in the mayoral election. Like working-class America, the system seems to be stacked against him… Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani as hope
And yet he persists. His determination is a sign of hope – not just for survival, but for change.
The Democratic Party is not unfamiliar with Indian-origin progressives, counting the prominent US Congress members Pramila Jayapal and Ro Khanna amongst its ranks.
However, there is a special buzz in the air amongst progressive Millennial and Gen-Z diaspora – a cohort of people who grew up with stories of India’s independence struggle, experienced racism first-hand, and are sensitised to the various civil rights movements that have shaped their Westernised generation. This has equipped them for political action well beyond diaspora-specific concerns, engaging with broader debates around public policy.
Other young trailblazers
As a result, we see young Desis willing to speak truth to power. In the US, we saw Vaniya Agrawal, an Indian-American software engineer fired from Microsoft in April 2024 for protesting against the company providing cloud computing services to Israel while it slaughters civilians in Gaza enmasse. Zohran Mamdani
We also see young Desis in movement building. Closer to home, “Desis for Yes” rose up in 2023 during the Voice to Parliament Referendum to mobilise South Asian diaspora support for the Voice. Although the Voice proposal was unsuccessful, movement co-founder Khushaal Vyas reflects that “Indian and Pakistani Australians’ understanding of British colonisation of the subcontinent and its ongoing impacts today may have led to a feeling of solidarity with Indigenous Australians” and led to greater support for the Voice in areas with more diaspora youth.
Vyas says he was motivated by “an inherent, moral duty as Australian to stand up for Indigenous rights, having benefitted from land taken from Indigenous people” and by “know[ing] how to communicate with the diaspora.” This has resonance with Mamdani’s approach – projecting social justice as a duty and meeting diaspora communities where they are. Mamdani masterfully executed the latter by speaking in Hindi and Spanish in campaign videos, boldly speaking to his Pro-Palestinian disposition, and interrogating the impact of inflation on kebab prices.
Progressive Indian origin youth have also stepped up on climate action. In 2019, Varsha Yajman co-organised the Sydney School Strike 4 Climate, and in 2020, Anjali Sharma led a court case arguing that the then Environment Minister, Sussan Ley, had a duty of care to young people when making mining approval decisions. While this position was overturned on appeal, it demonstrated a lack of consideration for young people’s interests in environmental approvals.
Yajman says her involvement in the climate movement was driven in part by her appreciation that “South Asia is one of the most climate vulnerable regions, experiencing intense heat waves every year…but Western media does not show the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the Global South”.
She also connects the mass clearing of land stolen from Indigenous people in Australia with the clearing of Adivasi lands in India – in both cases, inextricably linked with climate change. Like Vyas, living on stolen land made Yajman feel obliged to advocate for effective climate action.
Mamdani’s impact
These examples indicate a paradigm shift amongst younger Indian diaspora members. First generation migrants faced the uphill task of establishing themselves in a new country – a project that necessitated keeping their heads down, building economic prosperity and eschewing activities which may risk that endeavour.
However, subsequent generations who benefit from these efforts increasingly recognise that while being politically outspoken carries some risk, self-censorship should not reduce us to second-class citizens. We have a responsibility to drive positive change in our adopted homeland and beyond, despite the dangers – like Mamdani is doing.
Read Also: Dangerous contradictions: Zohran Mamdani
