[#30] Zohran Mamdani –A Suitable Boy?

Co written with Aparna Ravikumar, Consultant @Accenture Sustainability

There’s a meme making the rounds, one that I particularly like. The caption reads: Mira Nair did finally give us, “A Suitable Boy.”

IYKYK.

However, if you don’t know, Zohran Mamdani, the likely next mayor of New York City, is the son of filmmaker Mira Nair, the mind behind Monsoon Wedding, Salaam Bombay, and most recently, the BBC adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. (Hence the meme). His father is Mahmood Mamdani, one of the most influential postcolonial thinkers of our time. Add to that a rap alter ego called Mr. Cardamom, a Hinge love story with his now-wife Rama Duwaji, and you begin to see why he appeals to the South Bombay crowd.

Let’s zoom out. His father, Mamdani, was one of 26 Ugandan students who were part of the Kennedy Airlift program, which aimed to bring the brightest East Africans to Universities of Canada and the USA between 1959 and 1963. Mamdani graduated with a BA in political science. Mira Nair, on the other hand, is a household name for a certain privileged demographic of Indians. She is one of India’s few intellectual filmmakers, whose films touch upon sensitive, almost taboo subjects.

Zohran’s campaign platform reads like a Bernie Sanders wishlist. A $30 minimum wage, universal childcare, rent freeze, 200,000 units of social housing via a public agency, city-run supermarkets funded by taxes on the top 1%, legal aid and language access for immigrants, LGBTQ+ rights, including gender-affirming healthcare – unlike the Trump administration, who has refused to accept the existence of trans people.

He’s the kind of public figure Gen Z wants. Seemingly intersectional, imperfect, outspoken, unbought.

But his activism is also selective — vocal on India and Israel, but mum on Pakistan’s track record with terrorism. If he’s projecting himself as the voice of the voice-less, where is he lending his voice to, for example, the women of Iran? His view seems to be relevant to the Gen Z of New York, and the Gen Z and the privileged elite of India; aka the South Delhi and South Bombay masses.

Okay, now from an election + campaign perspective, his way of going about it is strongly reminiscent of Alexandra Ocasio Cortez’s. Both are Democratic Socialists. Both lean on grassroots energy. Both exploded into relevance by saying what no one else dared to, and by being as comfortable in a community meeting as they are on TikTok. Both their political opponents - Andrew Cuomo for Mamdani, and Joe Crowley for AOC, had not lived in New York for a long time; physically distant from the city that they were going to ask to vote for them.

Because not everyone’s sold.
He once said Modi "wiped out Gujarati Muslims" — of which he is one.
He likened Netanyahu to a war criminal.
He read from Notes from Jail ahead of Modi’s 2023 visit to NYC.

But - he’s stayed quiet on Pakistan’s role in terrorism in the world. While I want to like him, because from a social and demographic perspective, he is a highly relatable human being, on ground, I’d be curious to know how much of Mamdani’s policies are going to be implemented.

Because it appears that his premise may be weak for a broader appeal as antisemitism and pro Islamism make for poor vote catchers. And when fighting for mayoral elections, he will need to build a broader appeal. The next 4 months are going to be interesting as they will give us a greater insight into his politics. Is he going to stick to his guns on his anti-Hindutva, anti-Israel slant, or start taking a centrist view on these issues, and become a true politician, rather than a messiah, which he projects himself to be?