By Pieter Friedrich
My interview with NYC’s mayor-elect, fifteen months before his historic win
In August 2024, I did a brief phone interview with New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani to cite him for an article about the Ram Mandir float controversy at that year’s India Day Parade. Mamdani was one of the few elected officials willing to publicly oppose the float, which celebrated building a temple on the ruins of a mosque demolished by Hindu nationalist mobs.
On Tuesday, he became New York City’s next mayor.
Mamdani’s victory makes him the first Muslim mayor in the city’s history, the first person of South Asian descent to hold the office, and at 34, the youngest mayor in over a century. What stands out to me now, reading back through the interview, is how clearly he articulated what the Ram Mandir represents in the broader context of Hindu nationalism’s expansion into American sociopolitics.
When I asked why he opposed the float, Mamdani spoke about his family — his Hindu grandfather reciting Urdu poetry and his Muslim grandfather singing bhajans in Gujarati. He called the Ram Mandir “the latest example” of a movement using communal violence as “a tool for mobilizing” political power, and he called on Mayor Adams to ensure the float didn’t roll. Adams never responded. The float went ahead, although not without further protest.
Mamdani has been consistently outspoken in his criticism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a “war criminal” in reference to the 2002 Gujarat riots. In August 2020, when Modi laid the first brick of the Ram Mandir, Mamdani organized a Times Square protest against what he called a “vile spectacle of fascism,” documenting how Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses violence against communities as a tool for political mobilization.
During a Diwali event in Queens last month, Mamdani defended his criticism of Modi while reaching out to Hindu American voters, explaining that his opposition stems from the vision of the India he grew up knowing. “I have been critical of Mr. Modi because of the vision that I grew up with was of an India that was pluralistic, an India where everyone belonged, no matter their religion,” he said. “And my critique has been of Mr. Modi and the BJP political party for their vision of an India that only has room for certain kinds of Indians, and it’s part of a belief that pluralism is something to be celebrated, something to be strived for.”
This record made Mamdani a target throughout his campaign, with Hindu nationalist organizations in both the US and India, including the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), coordinating opposition to his candidacy. Before the June Democratic primary, a plane flew over the Statue of Liberty with a banner reading “Save NYC from global intifada. Reject Mamdani” — funded by Indian-American Hindu nationalist organizations.
CoHNA was among 20 Hindu organizations that signed an October letter condemning Mamdani’s so-called “Hinduphobic” statements. That’s the same CoHNA that developed Georgia’s SB375 with Senator Shawn Still. The same playbook: frame opposition to Hindu nationalist ideology as anti-Hindu bigotry, mobilize donors, coordinate testimony, and build political influence through manufactured victimhood narratives.
Mamdani won anyway, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo by about 9 points in a race that drew over 2 million voters — the highest mayoral turnout since 1969.
I’ve documented how Hindu nationalist organizations have built influence in American institutions at every level. I’ve testified 24 times in the past month across Georgia to oppose legislation that they helped write. I’ve watched them deploy identical tactics in city after city, state after state. Yet now America’s largest city will be led by someone with a clear record of opposing this movement.
The interview was short — maybe 10 minutes — but his analysis holds up. The full transcript is below.
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Pieter: Why did you join this letter, and what does this particular float mean to you as a Muslim of Indian origin?
Zohran: I joined this letter, and I continue to speak in opposition to the proposal of including this float in this Sunday’s India parade, because it’s not just about one float. This is the latest example of a movement that seeks to transform India and the idea of India from a diverse, secular republic into a Hindu state, and erase the legacy of an India where my Hindu grandfather recited Urdu poetry, and my Muslim grandfather sang bhajans in Gujarati.
For the BJP and associated Hindu nationalist groups, India’s Muslim population isn’t only an obstacle to their political goals, it is anathema to their definition of the nation. And the BJP uses violence against entire communities, often Muslim, sometimes Christian, as a tool for mobilizing its base for political gain.
This temple, the representation of this temple in a float, it is but the latest example of that long-term vision and movement and record. And the destruction of Babri Masjid was one of the first examples of that tactic of using violence as a tool of mobilization. And it began as a rally, it became violent, it led to the dismantling of a masjid with individuals using their very hands, and it triggered a wave of communal violence across India that killed over 2,000 people.
Even beyond that, it emboldened Hindu nationalists across the country and across the world to commit to building a Hindu temple on the site of that very mosque as a symbol of their vision of India purged of its Muslim heritage.
And to now have a float representing that very temple in a city where we often rightfully discuss our strength as being our diversity, it is outrageous and it is something that so clearly crosses the boundaries of the kind of political expression we should be welcoming on our streets.
That’s why I continue to call on Mayor Eric Adams and City Hall to ensure that such a float does not have any place in this forthcoming Sunday’s rally.
Pieter: Your letter mentions the New Jersey bulldozer issue, and I wanted to ask you, here in the US, do you see a growing trend of Hindu nationalist activity in America? And then I also wanted to ask you what you hope the New York City government does in response, but I think you just touched on that as far as what you want the mayor to do.
Zohran: You know, I would just say that it is deeply personal to me as an Indian American Muslim. My very existence is something that this movement would love to deny. And this is such a clear expression of bigotry and the audacity that the organizers of this event have, that they think such an expression would be welcome on the streets of New York City. It is one that must be met with widespread opposition, and we continue to wait and see whether the mayor will put his thumb on the scale of bigotry or his thumb on the scale of inclusion. And we still have no answer.
Pieter Friedrich is a freelance journalist specializing in analysis of South Asian affairs.
8 November 2025
Source: countercurrents.org