In 2022, a dear friend took me to an Independence Day reception in New York City, which we both immediately regretted attending. It was an extremely high-profile event with Mayor Eric Adams and a foreign president as chief guests, excellent waterfront views, exquisite cocktails, and great-looking food. The said friend and his wife are mild-mannered stalwarts of the Indian community in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. We were horrified by the way many of the community members behaved during the reception. The guests’ speeches were interrupted by the chants of an Indian political leader’s name. The hosts’ addresses were eologies dedicated to the same leader. One almost forgot the geographical location of the gala. To this day, I remain awestruck by my friend’s patience and good humour with which he tolerated that evening’s grotesqueness.
The same grotesqueness has translated into slander against New York City’s first Indian-origin mayoral candidate, who’s almost set to occupy the office. Suddenly, many Indians’ urge to claim anyone even remotely Indian in terms of their genetic makeup for achieving anything on the global stage has turned into outright hate. It doesn’t matter anymore that the 33-year-old Zohran Kwame Mamdani is the son of National Award and Padma Bhushan-winning filmmaker Mira Nair. It also doesn’t matter that his platform has promised to make New York a livable city for everyone, especially those who cannot cocoon themselves in the sense of safety their wealth buys – the immigrants.
Leave a Reply