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How the New York Mayor Transformed Diwali into an American Festival

1100 South Asians celebrate Diwali at Gracie Mansion

 

I have been to the Mayor’s Diwali celebrations several times over the years but this year it seemed as if all of New York’s South Asian community was there – over 1,100 people – young, old and in-between, seemed to flood the lawns of Gracie Mansion. There were just so many new faces as different diasporic communities came together to the beat of Bollywood and bhangra and the delights of Indian cuisine and sweets. All, of course, dressed up in their glittering Diwali best.

What the guests didn’t realize was there was a big unexpected Diwali gift for them – a public school holiday on Diwali – had been orchestrated by Mayor Eric Adams and his supporter, Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, who is from the Punjab, India. Several Indian-Americans who are in public office had gathered at the Mayor’s celebration, including New York Senator Kevin Thomas, the first Indian to be elected to the state legislature who said: “Today Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhist, some of the world’s oldest religions, light the Diya with family and friends. Diwali’s also a time for prayer and contemplation to reflect on our obligations to help our fellow human beings, particularly the less fortunate. And this is why it is incredibly important for us to get Diwali as a school holiday here in New York City.”

Shekar Krishnan, who is a council member for Jackson Heights and  Elmhurst, the first Indian-American ever elected to NY’s city government, noted: “We show today the power of our South Asian Indo-Caribbean communities by being here to celebrate Diwali, a festival where we celebrate the light inside all of us that we collectively bring together in a bonfire of justice to dispel the darkness around us, even in these difficult times, to fight against oppression and injustice and to blaze the way forward.”

City Council Member Linda Lee who represents district 23 in Eastern Queens with a huge community that celebrates Diwali, said: “We need to celebrate light. Get rid of the darkness. We’ve been dealing with it way too much”

Assembly Member Rajkumar, who is the first Hindu ever elected to New York State office shared how like so many immigrants, her parents came from India with just 300 and a suitcase. In introducing Mayor Eric Adams, she said, “On the streets, they actually call him the Hindu mayor. He keeps a plant-based diet. He meditates. He is the only mayor in the history of our city to cite the Ramayana in his speeches. He goes to Hindu temples all around this city with an open heart. All of us in this room have seen him at the mandirs around the city.”

She added, “As Hindu Americans, it is time for us to be seen for who we are. Ours is the culture that inspired Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King famously said that India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of his movement for social change. As Hindu Americans, we have a central place in the civil rights tradition of this country. As Hindu Americans, we believe in mutual respect and love for all faiths. So this Diwali, we remember Lord Ram’s triumphant return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile”

She added: “We learned that all humans have it within themselves to defeat the evil in this world. And when I think of the story of Ram and all that he overcame to defeat the demon king, I think of our mayor, Eric Adams, who is working to end crime in our city, to handle an unprecedented migrant surge as immigrants come here from other states. Every day, he is working to uplift our schools and our children to end poverty, to stop hate. So this Diwali, let us pray that our mayor and our city wins. And let us remember that Ram could not defeat the demon king without friends and allies. Ram needed Hanuman. Ram needed the army of monkeys and bears. So let us all support the mayor. Let us be his Hanuman. Let us carry the mountain for him as Hanuman did.”

Mayor Adams was flanked by his deputy mayor Meera Joshi, Commissioner Aggarwalla, Ashwin Vasan, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Deputy Commissioner Dilip Chauhan, Trade and Investment, Mayor’s Office of International Affairs. Honorees from the Indian community included Thomas Abraham of GOPIO, M R Rangaswami of Indiaspora and Grammy winner Falu Shah.

Adams addressed the South Asian community directly, recalling the large wave of immigrants who came in the 70’s and moved to Queens, believing in the American Dream.

“You worked hard and opened small businesses, and you sent your children to school to learn different skills so they can be deputy mayors and doctors and leaders of agencies and help our city move forward. You fortify the strength of our city. And when you do an analysis, you notice your presence in law enforcement, healthcare, small businesses, your faith. You’re one of the largest economic groups in this country, one of the largest educated groups in this country, one of the largest small business owners in this country. You believe in the American dream and you live it out every day.”

He recalled how there had been so much longing for a holiday on Diwali and the challenge was that there were no more days in the school calendar and everyone had stated it couldn’t be done. “But I believe we must look at life not through a deficit, but a surplus,” he said. “We have to stop saying what we can’t do and figure out how to do it. So it may have been impossible for others, it was possible for me. It was possible for Assemblywoman Rajkumar. It was possible for the community. And so we put the plan together. Now we need your help. As we go back to Albany in January, you need to go back with a clear message to every assembly person, every senator, the governor and everyone say, pass the law so we have Diwali holiday.”

Adams, in speaking of Diwali, Ram and Sita, gave it all a uniquely American, even New York slant, by emphasizing the role of women in the story and the power of diversity. “We always think of Ram when we think about Diwali and we think about the fight against evil and how he pushed against darkness and brought light,” he said. “But when you look at that important story, don’t forget Sita. Don’t write Sita out of that narrative. Sita was a strong woman who did not succumb to all the riches, all the glory that the darkness wanted to provide for her. She stood firm and committed. And the word Sita itself is a word of sacrifice.”

“And so as we talk about uplifting Ram and uplifting Diwali, you can’t uplift what you celebrate and downgrade women in the process. This must be a city that leads the way of acknowledging that women are not behind us, but side by side. That’s why for the first time in history, we have five women that are deputy mayors of the City of New York. We have a woman police commissioner, we have a woman that leads the Department of Sanitation, a woman that leads probation, and we have a woman that is my chief advisor. You see the equality in our administration because I can’t give you a holiday if I’m not going to ensure every day that we are going to live up to what we speak about.”

New York being a Sanctuary City and so sympathetic to the immigrants and the dreamers, Adams added a New York touch to his remarks: “And finally, we have to live true to what Diwali represents. There’s too much darkness. We have been engulfed in the desire to just find places we disagree. We’re spending all of our times trying to prove that we are wrong and everyone else is right.”

“It is time for us to live up to Diwali, to sit down and communicate, to push back against hate crimes against Sikhs, against AAPI, against those of the LGBTQ+ communities, against African Americans, against Latinos, against Irish and Jewish and Polish and all the other groups that make this city. We need to be the beacon of light that shows the country how we need to push away darkness. And we have to do it not by hope and chance, but to do it in a very creative way by hosting dinners and meetings where we integrate with each other and show the beauty of this city. If we only celebrate the pushing of darkness away for one day, then we are betraying the principles of Diwali. It is every day that we must live at that magnitude and at that height.”

And so that is how Diwali became an American Festival.