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FIRST ON FOX: The mother of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gave an interview when he was a 21-year-old American college student discussing how her son is “not an American at all” while using terminology that some view as derogatory toward the United States.
“He is a total desi,” filmmaker Mira Nair told the Hindustan Times in a 2013 interview, when her son Zohran was 21 years old. At the time, Zohran was attending Bowdoin College where he co-founded the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and was pushing for academic sanctions against Israel.
“Completely. We are not firangs at all. He is very much us. He is not an Uhmericcan (American) at all. He was born in Uganda, raised between India and America. He is at home in many places. He thinks of himself as a Ugandan and as an Indian.”
In Hindi and Urdu, “firang” is an informal term historically used to describe foreigners or Westerners.
‘ABSOLUTELY A COMMUNIST’: MAMDANI DODGES LABEL, BUT HIS RECORD AND EXPERT SAY OTHERWISE
NYC socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s mother articulated in a 2013 interview why he doesn’t view himself as American. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
But Mehek Cooke, an attorney born in India who serves as a GOP consultant and commentator, told Digital that the word is not “some harmless cultural term,” but rather a “slur.”
“It’s the word used back in India to mock outsiders, to say you don’t belong,” Cooke said. “Using it here about your own child raised in the United States carries the same tone as calling someone a derogatory word — or worse. It’s flippant, divisive, and dripping with contempt for the very country that gave your family a better life.”
Cooke added, “When Mamdani’s mother says her son was ‘never a firang and only desi,’ it’s a rejection of America. It’s ungrateful, disrespectful, and frankly repulsive to live in this country since age seven, receive every freedom, education, and opportunity America offers, and still deny being American.”
Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and moved to the United States at age 7, holds dual citizenship with the U.S. and Uganda, and was naturalized as an American in 2018.
Nair went on to emphasize in the interview, “we only speak Hindustani at home” and described her son as a “very chaalu fellow,” using a term that is often translated to mean savvy or street smart.
“He’s his own person,” Mamdani’s Columbia University professor father, Mahmood, told the New York Times in an interview earlier this year headlined, “The Parents Who Helped Shape Zohran Mamdani’s Politics.”
Mahmood Mamdani added, “Now, of course, what we do as his parents is part of the environment in which he grew up, and he couldn’t help but engage with it. That doesn’t mean anything is reflected back on us.”
“I don’t agree!” Nair interjected in the interview. “Of course the world we live in, and what we write and film and think about, is the world that Zohran has very much absorbed.”
HOUSE REPUBLICAN DEMANDS ZOHRAN MAMDANI BE STRIPPED OF CITIZENSHIP, DEPORTED OVER ‘ANTI-ISRAEL’ STANCE
New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani delivers remarks in the Bronx, New York City, on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. ( Digital/Deirdre Heavey)
Mahmood Mamdani’s positions have faced heavy criticism on social media, particularly his stance on Israel and opposition to “settler colonialism,” highlighted by his position on the advisory council of an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts and sanctions of Israel and routinely accuses the Israeli government of committing “genocide.”
In recent days, a video of Mahmood Mamdani claiming that Adolf Hitler was inspired by Abraham Lincoln, which digital reported on in July, has resurfaced on social media, racking up millions of views.
Earlier this year, during a controversy over Mamdani identifying as “Black or African American” on a college application, Mamdani told the New York Times he identifies as “an American who was born in Africa.”
“This isn’t just about identity, it’s about values,” Cooke told Digital. “Rejecting the label of ‘American’ while living under the flag, enjoying the freedoms, and cashing in on the opportunities is a rejection of American values themselves: gratitude, unity, and pride in country.”
“And if you raise your child to believe he was ‘never a firang,’ never an American, what message are you sending? That he owes nothing to this nation? That he can take the benefits without any sense of belonging or loyalty? That mindset breeds resentment. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing play out in politics today.”
Digital reached out to Nair and the Mamdani campaign for comment.
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Mira Nair, New York mayoral candidate, state Rep. Zohran Mamdani, Rama Duwaji and Mahmood Mamdani celebrate on stage during an election night gathering at The Greats of Craft LIC on June 24, 2025. (Getty)
Nair, a highly respected filmmaker in India, seemed to predict a life in politics was in store for her son during the Hindustan Times interview, saying she doesn’t want him to follow in her footsteps but instead pursue his interests.
“No, no, he should do whatever he wants to do,” Nair said. “I don’t see it in him to make movies. He is very involved with current affairs, politics, and political issues. I think he can be engaged in the world in someway to make a difference. He is very, very interested in that.”
