“I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.” With these words, Zohran Mamdani framed a victory that resonates far beyond New York City. His election as mayor of one of the world’s most influential cities signals a shift in public priorities—towards issues of ordinary people, towards youth with firm convictions taking on entrenched interests, and towards a politics grounded in humanistic values and equality.
His rise from a marginal presence to a decisive win is noteworthy not only for its political meaning but also for what it reveals about social perception. That he felt compelled to assert both his Muslim identity and his democratic socialist beliefs points to decades-long demonization of these terms. “Socialism” in the United States has long been equated with communism, which has itself been painted as a threat to American life, especially during the Cold War. At the very moment newly independent nations were attempting to build their foundations, the United States sought to consolidate its global dominance.
Its propaganda machinery cast communism as an evil force, while the USSR offered many of these nations—India included—support in building infrastructure and heavy industry. The diverging trajectories of India and Pakistan illustrate the difference between investing in core development and relying on imported finished goods.
This anti-communist climate was reinforced by American wars, most notably in Vietnam, and by waves of domestic hysteria such as McCarthyism, which trampled constitutional safeguards while attempting to purge suspected communists. Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent showed how media and state interests collaborated to cement the image of communism as inherently dangerous.
India’s right wing absorbed and echoed these narratives. From the Cold War onward, organisations like the Hindu Mahasabha and the Jana Sangh aligned ideologically with the U.S. position. As Rahul Sagar notes, these groups supported Western anti-communism due to their own hostility to left ideology, even as they feared Western materialism.
The Jana Sangh opposed non-alignment and pushed India toward pro-West positions. M.S. Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts went so far as to list Muslims, Christians and communists as internal threats, a framework that continues to shape political discourse.
The demonization of Muslims, meanwhile, intensified globally after 9/11. Mahmood Mamdani’s book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim traced the roots of groups like Al Qaeda to U.S. interventions in oil-rich regions that helped create armed networks later labelled as “Islamic terrorism.”
The American media’s conflation of Islam with terrorism became a destructive force in global public consciousness. In India, this global Islamophobia compounded existing prejudices rooted in colonial “divide and rule,” selective historiography and communal politics, contributing to violence, marginalization and ghettoization.
Zohran Mamdani understands how deeply these twin demonizations—of socialism and of Muslims—shape public sentiment. Both have been woven into global “common sense,” often for the benefit of vested interests. His critics in the U.S. have already labelled him a communist and a jihadi, invoking fear and suspicion rather than engaging with his policies. Opposition forces are even encouraging billionaires to flee New York, claiming they will be targeted under a welfare-oriented administration.
Yet Mamdani has made his position clear: social welfare is essential, and religious identity should have no bearing on policies that uplift deprived sections of society. His victory challenges entrenched narratives and reminds us that democratic politics is not about catering to privilege but about expanding justice, dignity and opportunity for all.
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