After historic NYC win: Mamdani’s speech quotes Nehru, ends with Dhoom Machale

“A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance,” said Zohran Mamdani in his victory speech, quoting Jawaharlal Nehru. Tonight, he added, New York has stepped from the old into the new.

The 34-year-old Indian-origin democratic socialist has made history as New York City’s first Muslim and youngest mayor, defeating independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani’s win marks a generational shift in the city’s politics, ending Eric Adams’s tenure after the incumbent dropped out of the race in September but remained on the ballot.

His campaign, sharp on digital strategy and focused on the city’s soaring cost of living, struck a chord with voters. It also placed Mamdani at the center of national debate after months of confrontation with US President Donald Trump, who had warned he would cut off federal funding if Mamdani were elected.

Nehru’s original words, spoken at midnight on August 14, 1947, as India prepared to become independent, marked the country’s transition from colonial rule to self-governance.

“Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny. Now the time has come when we shall redeem our pledge - not wholly or in full measure - but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance,” said Nehru in his 1947 speech.

For Mamdani, that moment now belonged to New York. He said now was the time to speak with clarity about what this new age could deliver.

“Whether you are an immigrant, a member of the trans community, one of the many Black women that Donald Trump has fired from a federal job, a single mom still waiting for the cost of groceries to go down, or anyone else with their back against the wall, your struggle is ours, too. And we will build a city hall that stands steadfast alongside Jewish New Yorkers, and does not waver in the fight against the scourge of anti-Semitism. Where the more than 1 million Muslims know that they belong,” he said.

He thanked his supporters for proving that new leadership is possible when “politics speaks to you without condescension.” Casting his win as a victory for those “so often forgotten by the politics of this city,” Mamdani named Senegalese taxi drivers, Uzbek nurses, and Trinidadian line cooks.

As Mamdani ended his speech, the Bollywood number Dhoom Machale played in the background.

Mamdani’s victory comes despite an intense misinformation campaign against him by the right-wing media. 

“With less than two weeks until the New York City mayoral election, right-wing media have been lobbing anti-Muslim attacks at New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, baselessly saying his ideology is not socialism but ‘radical jihadist sharia supremacism,’ accusing him of not giving a “shit that we were attacked by Muslim terrorists on 9/11,’ and saying he would be ‘cheering’ on the attacks if they happened while he was mayor,” noted a study by the watchdog Media Matters for America. 

A staggering 1.15 million social media posts on New York mayoral Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani are Islamophobic, noted another report by Equality Labs. These posts had a user reach of over 150 billion. Another 1.43 million posts mislabel him a communist, with a user reach of 330.2 billion reach. More than 17.1 million posts have been circulated about Mamdani across various social media platforms in 2025, the report noted.

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