Echoing Nehru, Democratic Socialist Mamdani declares the start of a new age

Presenter: New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani draws inspiration from Nehru’s speech, delivered on the eve of independence for India. 

Jawaharlal Nehru (Aug. 14, 1947): At the stroke of the midnight hour when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.

[00:00:21] Presenter: Taking Nehru’s theme, Mamdani gives it an American Socialist twist. 

[00:00:26] Mamdani: The sun may have set over our city this evening. But as Eugene Debs once said, ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.’

[00:00:45] Presenter: Later, Mamdani directly references this quote from the Nehru speech:

[00:00:49] Nehru: 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. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication for the service of India and her people, and to the still larger cause of humanity.

[00:01:21] Mamdani: Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru: ‘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.’

[00:01:41] Tonight we have stepped out from the old into the new. So let us speak now with clarity and conviction that cannot be misunderstood about what this new age will deliver and for whom.

[00:01:58] This will be an age where New Yorkers expect from their leaders a bold vision of what we will achieve, rather than a list of excuses for what we are too timid to attempt.

[00:02:10] Central to that vision will be the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that this city has seen since the days of Fiorello La Guardia.

[00:02:29] An agenda that will freeze the rents for more than two million rent-stabilized tenants. Make buses fast and free. And deliver universal child care across our city.

[00:02:50] Years from now, may our only regret be that this day took so long to come.

[00:03:00] This new age will be one of relentless improvement. We will hire thousands more teachers. We will cut waste from a bloated bureaucracy. We will work tirelessly to make lights shine again in the hallways of NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) developments where they have long flickered.

[00:03:25] Safety and justice will go hand in hand as we work with police officers to reduce crime and create a Department of Community Safety that tackles the mental health crisis and homelessness crises head-on.

[00:03:43] Excellence will become the expectation across government, not the exception. In this new age we make for ourselves, we will refuse to allow those who traffic in division and hate to pit us against one another.

[00:04:04] In this moment of political darkness, New York will be the light. Here, we believe in standing up for those we love. 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.

[00:04:45] 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 antisemitism; where the more than one million Muslims know that they belong, not just in the five boroughs of this city, but in the halls of power. No more will New York be a city where you can traffic in Islamophobia and win an election.

[00:05:20] This new age will be defined by a competence and a compassion that have too long been placed at odds with one another. We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.

[00:05:50] For years, those in City Hall have only helped those who can help them. But on Jan. 1, we will usher in a city government that helps everyone…

[00:06:07] To every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for one of my opponents, or felt too disappointed by politics to vote at all, thank you for the opportunity to prove myself worthy of your trust.

[00:06:23] I will wake each morning with a singular purpose to make this city better for you than it was the day before. There are many who thought this day would never come, who feared that we would be condemned only to a future of less, with every election consigning us simply to more of the same. And there are others who see politics today as too cruel for the flame of hope to still burn.

[00:06:54] New York, we have answered those fears. Tonight we have spoken in a clear voice. Hope is alive.

[00:07:10] Presenter: Zohran Mamdani references Nehru’s speech, which recognized that there would be difficulties ahead. 

[00:07:16] Nehru: Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?… That future is not one of ease or resting, but of incessant striving…

[00:07:31] The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity.

[00:07:47] The ambition of the greatest men of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over. And so we have to labor and to work and work hard to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagine that it can live apart.

[00:08:31] Peace has been said to be indivisible. So is freedom. So is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments. To the people of India, whose representatives we are, we make appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure.

[00:09:00] Presenter: Zohran Mamdani references Nehru in his election-night speech Nov. 4, as the Democratic Socialist invites the people to join in this great adventure.

Image of Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his “tryst with destiny” speech Aug. 14, 1947, Unknown author, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons.