When Zohran Mamdani made history this week by becoming the first South Asian mayor of New York, he quoted one of modern India’s founding fathers in his acceptance speech and walked off the stage to the sounds of a thumping Bollywood banger.

The Muslim son of Indian-origin immigrants, the win is a powerful rebuke of US President Donald Trump, who has sought to drastically curb immigration to the United States, and takes on a greater meaning in a city still contending with the deep scars of post 9/11 Islamophobia.

But the aftershocks of his success are also being felt more than 8,000 miles away in cities across the world’s most populous country, where his ascent is both celebrated and criticized.

“We have been denied the limelight for a long time,” said 48-year-old Gulfam Khan Hussain f

See Full Page