Salaam New York: Zohran Mamdani & a fusion of 3 cross-continental cultures

 

There has been a development in New York that challenges Donald Trump’s America, where certain subjects – such as diversity, inclusion, immigrants, and Palestine – have become difficult to venture into. It is the primary victory of Zohran Kwame Mamdani in the mayoral election, one that makes him likely to become New York City’s first Indian-American and first Muslim mayor if he wins against the Republican candidate in November.

 

The 33-year-old Democratic candidate, who is a former Republican, was born to immigrant parents, supports Palestine, has a socialist agenda for New York, including free childcare and rent cap, feels strongly about climate change, wants to tax wealthy Big Apple residents, and increase corporate tax. His pro-Palestine slogan, “Globalise the intifada (rebellion or uprising)”, has his opponents gunning for him and the American media dissecting his politics, but he has stood his ground.

 

 

In many ways, Mamdani symbolises multiculturalism, which stems from the family he comes from, the relationships he has forged, and the arts he has embraced.

 

His mother, Mira Nair, is a well-recognised Indian-American filmmaker, many of whose movies have been critically acclaimed globally. Among them are Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, Queen of Katwe, Monsoon Wedding, in each of which she pushes boundaries, often turning the spotlight on the underdog, bringing the missable into focus: Whether it is about the struggles of first-generation immigrants (The Namesake), who are caught between two cultures, and their children, who believe they belong to their parents’ adopted country but don’t quite; or, about the precarious lives of children in the slums of the financial powerhouse now called Mumbai (Salaam Bombay!), where the actors are the street children themselves; or about the travails of a 10-year-old chess prodigy born in a disadvantaged part of Uganda (Queen of Katwe). 

 

There is a story behind the name “Nair”, which appears to indicate that Mamdani’s mother has roots in Kerala. She is, however, a Punjabi, and her father was in the Indian Administrative Service and mother a social worker. The family name, Nayyar, was changed to “Nair” by her grandfather for reasons unclear.

 

There is also a story behind Mamdani’s middle name, “Kwame”. It was given to him by his Indian-Ugandan father, Mahmood Mamdani, in honour of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, whom the BBC described as a “Hero of Independence” and an “international symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule”. An academic, Mamdani Senior, whose specialisation includes colonialism and post-colonialism, was born in pre-Independence Bombay to Gujarati Shia Muslim parents, who later migrated to Kampala, Uganda. He would, after coming to study in the United States in the ’60s, participate in the civil rights movement, and would also be jailed.

 

It wouldn’t be amiss to say that a lot of Zohran Mamdani’s politics has been shaped by his parents’. 

 

In 2013, for instance, Mira Nair had turned down an invitation to the Haifa International Film Festival in Israel as a guest of honour. On what was then called Twitter, and is now X, she posted: “I will go to Israel when the walls come down. I will go to Israel when occupation is gone... I stand w/ Palestine for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel…” 

 

The mayor probable’s parents, incidentally, met in Uganda while Nair was researching for Mississippi Masala, and that’s where he was born in 1991 – coincidentally, the year the film was released. The couple immigrated to the US when he was seven.

 

Earlier this year, Zohran Mamdani married Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji, whose work, besides exploring migration, heritage, community and identity, also draws to pro-Palestinian themes.

 

The arts have been Mamdani’s constant companion – not just because of his filmmaker mother and artist wife. He is a former rapper. Nine years ago, he released an EP, titled “Sidda Mukyaalo” (Luganda for “No going back to the village”), along with Ugandan rapper HAB. And in 2019 came a single, titled “Nani” – a tribute to his maternal grandmother, Praveen Nair, rich with cultural references to India. It featured the multifaceted actor and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey as a revolutionary “nani”. 

 

This video can be found on the YouTube channel called “Mr Cardamom”, a moniker Mamdani gave himself. It’s a clever sobriquet, given that he is a lawmaker from Queens, and cardamom is recognised as the “queen of spices”. It is a versatile spice, one that works both in sweet and savoury preparations, and while it is never the core ingredient, it always makes its presence known. Mamdani has also made the world sit up and take note. 

 

In 2019, when he first ran for office (New York State Assembly), he redirected his followers from “Mr Cardamom” to his official handle on X with this message: “You know I'll be forever spicy but I’m taking a break from being a spice to answer the question of what happens when a B-list rapper runs for office….”. His official handle now has something like 376,000 followers, whereas Mr Cardamom is at 380.

 

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has gone after Mamdani through his social media platform, Truth Social, branding him a “100 per cent communist lunatic” and saying that “the Democrats have crossed the line”. 

 

The rapper-turned-politician, however, is staying the course. In November, if he is elected New York City’s mayor, one of the things he’ll be doing is to oversee the largest municipal Budget in the US.