By Christian Spencer | news@queensledger.com
Zohran Mamdani’s roots in Little Guyana helped set the course for his rise to mayor, a connection he highlighted Sunday as he appeared at the 38th Phagwah Parade.
Speaking to a packed crowd in the Indo-Caribbean enclave between Ozone Park and South Richmond Hill, Queens, on March 29, Mamdani described how deeply the neighborhood shaped his sense of belonging in New York.
Born in Uganda to Indian parents, he said his assimilation into the city was shaped in large part by Indo-Caribbean culture.
“As I grew up as a young man, I always looked to the Indo-Caribbean community, with the names that I learned of — Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dinesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul. These were the names that inspired me as a child looking to cricket. And it is such a pleasure to be here now and celebrate this same community here today,” Mamdani said.
The parade, which wound along Liberty Avenue between 138th Street and Phil “Scooter” Rizzuto Park, already had the street buzzing when Mamdani arrived.
Security struggled to contain a surge of supporters and photographers pressing toward him.
To the Indo-Caribbean and broader South Asian communities, Mamdani has become a potent symbol of representation.
“This will be the first time a South Asian mayor is going to kick off the 38th Phagwah Parade on behalf of the Federation of Hindu Mandirs, the Arya Spiritual Center, the Phagwah Parade of New York, and all of you, everyone that’s here. So thank you so much, Mayor. Thank you very much. We really appreciate you, and we would like you to kick off our parade with a countdown,” said Romeo Hitlall, a longtime community leader and parade committee member.
Thousands pressed in around him outside Sybil’s Bakery and Restaurant, jostling for selfies or smearing him with the bright colored powder that marks Phagwah — the Hindu festival of colors that celebrates renewal, joy, and the coming of spring. Mamdani walked the route alongside Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who voiced his support for the Hindu community.
The future of New York City appears increasingly tied to an energized Asian voice — particularly its South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities — as evidenced by the 2025 mayoral campaign. Even rival candidate Andrew Cuomo made stops at local Guyanese and Indo-Caribbean establishments, including a visit to Sybil’s, to court support in the neighborhood.
As The Queens Ledger previously reported, the growing acceptance of Hinduism across New York City has been marked by Diwali’s recognition as a citywide school holiday. In Little Guyana, that shift is visible on the ground, where politicians like Richards, state Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar — dressed as the Hindu goddess Kali — and Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa have worked to build ties with the Indo-Caribbean community.
“It alerts everybody, not just me, who grew up in this area when it was all Italian. It shows how dramatically the city has changed. Now you have a Southeast Asian mayor. They celebrated that, as any ethnic group would. But more importantly, it shows you the businesses, homeownership, schools, and the celebration of the culture,” Sliwa said. “I’m a Republican, I’m here. It shows that no matter what your political difference is, you can be here to celebrate the accomplishments and culture of a community. Obviously, the Democrats have done a much better job of extending that into this growing community. We, Republicans, have got to step up, because if not, the base of the Republican Party, which is predominantly white and ethnic, will continue to shrink as people die and leave.”
Joining Sliwa was his former campaign aide, Rusat Ramgopal, an Indo-Guyanese who serves as executive director of the Queens Republican Party and was the Republican nominee for New York City Council District 28 in 2023.
“These are the people who are inheriting the city. They will be the power, and they need to be represented, or at least have adequate points of view they can choose from,” Silwa said.
Asian American voters have historically not been tracked as a distinct category in exit polls as consistently as Black, Hispanic, or White voters, making clear trend lines difficult to establish. In earlier cycles, such as 2021, they were often folded into broader “minority” groupings and tended to lean Democratic.
In 2025, however, Asian voters were polled at greater scale for the first time, revealing a more even split overall, with sharp variation between subgroups. South Asian voters backed Mamdani overwhelmingly, while East Asian voters showed more division, with Chinese communities voting for Cuomo, Documented NY reported.
Capitalizing on the growing Asian voting bloc, Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican nominee for New York attorney general and a Brooklyn-born Indian American, used her appearance at the Phagwah Parade to court Indo-Caribbean voters.
“Holi (also called Phagwah in Caribbean communities) is a celebration of color and joy. It’s really a time of renewal, a time to celebrate a new season coming in. That’s how I think about our race. People want a new generation of leadership. They want fresh perspectives, new ideas, and real solutions. That’s something I can offer because I’ve spent my entire career making sure Americans and New Yorkers are safe, and I can help solve the problems they face every day,” Komatireddy said.
Though the Republican attorney general candidate differs sharply from Mamdani on policy, she noted the same community solidarity that Sliwa emphasized.
“I’m going to be a prosecutor as the Attorney General who is focused on keeping New York safe. I’m going to bring crime down, and I’m going to keep politics out of it. That’s the most important thing,” she added. “As far as I’m concerned, if Mamdani wants someone like me in charge, who wakes up every day trying to make New York safer, he can focus on the other things.”
The attorney general race pits incumbent Democrat Letitia James against Republican challenger Komatireddy, with the outcome set to be determined in November.
