Mamdani’s lessons for India

Among the many lessons India should learn from Zohran Mamdanirsquos rousingly successful campaign to become the new Mayor of New York City perhaps the most significant is the strategy he adopted to neutralise the politics of hate He chose to flaunt his religious identity even as it was vilified by his rivals In his victory speech Mamdani explained why he was seen as far from being the perfect candidate ldquoI am younghellip I am Muslim I am a democratic socialist And most damning of all I refused to apologise for any of thisrdquoIn India though the opponents of Hindutva seem to believe its rise has as its drivers a heightened Hindu religiosity as well as hostility to religious minorities This has made them pander in fits and starts to the lsquoHindu sentimentrsquo or rather their perception of itNot too many years ago Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went on a templevisiting spree declared he was a Lord Shiva devotee and a Brahmin who wore the sacred thread Changing tack he now employs the radical rhetoric of caste representation and equality to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Partyrsquos project to unite Hindus by othering MuslimsOr take Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal whose triumph in 2013 was pivoted on making life in Delhi to use the catchphrase of Mamdanirsquos campaign ldquoaffordablerdquo Kejriwal subsidised electricity and water charges and made healthcare cheaper before he turned Lord Hanuman into almost his partyrsquos deity and began participating in elaborate Diwali pujasGandhi and Kejriwalrsquos strategy sought to promote through their makeover the possibility of being Hindu without baying for religious minorities This is true of almost all other leaders of the antiBJP formation Implicit in their strategy is the hope that once their Hindu credentials are established beyond reproach Hindutva canrsquot overwhelm the appeal of their agendasBut what they fail to grasp is the necessity of directly addressing and dispelling the anxieties and resentments that Hindutva stokes for these emotions are too powerful to be simply wished awayContrast their method to that of Mamdani who unapologetically embraced his Muslim identity in a city as much in the grip of Islamophobia as India is and where his community is just four per cent of the electorate He refused to retreat ldquointo the shadows of the cityrdquo to practise his faith defiantly declaring he wouldnrsquot stop being who he isHis defiance was combined with an appeal to the residentsrsquo conscience whether theyrsquod continue to accept a narrow definition of being a New Yorker that makes smaller the number of people guaranteed a life of dignity Mamdani reposed faith in the New Yorkerrsquos common sense to distinguish between right and wrong in contrast to Indian politicians seemingly believing the antipathy of Hindus towards the minorities is permanentEven more tellingly Mamdani located Muslims in the matrix of a singular working class not divided by religion or race or instigated to fight against each other by the billionaires His strategy promoted ldquounity in diversityrdquo once an article of faith in India by establishing the commonality of interests among social groupsThe effectiveness of his strategy was reflected in 33 per cent of Jews voting for him despite his repeated condemnation of Israel for carrying out a genocide in Gaza Mamdanirsquos rise is a reflection of the world opinion turning against Israel whose oppression typical of settler colonialism was being condoned just three years agoThis fact should worry the Modi government for it has been unstinting in its support of Israel both because of foreign policy pragmatism and the ideological affinity between Zionism and Hindutva regarding Muslims The Modi government needs a reality check on the PalestineIsrael issueA reality check should also be prescribed for Hindutvawadis living in the United States for they funded and amplified the hate campaign against Mamdani Their grouses against him include his criticism of Hindu nationalism and its exclusion and demonisation of religious minorities and his public comments against the violent targeting of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots under Narendra Modi whom he once compared to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu They also crib rather falsely that Mamdani doesnrsquot display enthusiasm for the Hindu cultural inheritance of his motherMamdanirsquos victory is a lesson for Hindutva supporters too For one opposition to Hindutva and Modi canrsquot be construed as being antiIndia or antiHindu A clutch of leading Hindu organisations in New York did endorse Mamdanirsquos candidature underscoring Hindutvarsquos propensity to divide the Indian diaspora For another they need to understand that Hindutvarsquos antiMuslim rhetoric may win them electoral victories in India but it canrsquot become a morally persuasive argument for those Hindus who living overseas resort to the universal language of equality to fight discrimination and establish their rightsMamdanirsquos victory in the citadel of capitalism is remarkable as he is a democratic socialist reinforcing the sagacity of a political thought which says the rise of the Right canrsquot be countered with a Centrist position but by opting for a more pronounced Leftist agenda This is mirrored in the Leftrsquos sudden expansion in Germany France and the Netherlands Really Indiarsquos Opposition needs to stop fearing what they seek to battleThe writer is a senior journalist and author of Bhima Koregaon Challenging CasteSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper