New York City Desi news — 2026-10-17

New York City's South Asian and broader desi community is at the center of two distinct stories this week. The visit of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to New York has sparked protests and calls for sanctions from both Hindu community members and critics of Hindu nationalist politics. And Brooklyn's annual West Indian Day Parade has returned, bringing together the Caribbean and South Asian diasporas in one of New York's most beloved street celebrations.

Hindu Nationalist Leader's NYC Visit Sparks Protests and Calls for Sanctions

AP News reports that the visit of Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — the influential Hindu nationalist organization widely regarded as the ideological parent organization of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party — to New York has sparked protests from multiple groups. The protests draw on a broad coalition of critics of the RSS's politics, ranging from Muslim and Sikh community organizations to progressive South Asian American groups and advocates for Kashmiri and Dalit rights. Protesters carried signs calling for sanctions against Bhagwat and the RSS, citing what they characterize as the organization's role in promoting Hindu majoritarian politics in India and linking it to what they describe as a deteriorating situation for religious minorities. The Jerusalem Post reports that NYC City Council candidate Zohran Mamdani publicly opposed the event, calling attention to what he called the incompatibility of RSS ideology with New York's values. The event itself was organized by Hindu community organizations in New York who see Bhagwat's visit as an opportunity for the Hindu-American community to engage with a major figure in Hindu philosophy and leadership. The RSS's status among Hindu Americans is contested: for some, it represents a cultural and spiritual tradition; for others, its political associations are disqualifying. The protests drew counter-demonstrations from RSS supporters. [2]

West Indian Day Parade Returns to Brooklyn for Annual Caribbean-South Asian Celebration

FOX 5 New York reports that New York City's West Indian Day Parade has returned to Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway, bringing the annual celebration of Caribbean and South Asian cultural heritage back to one of the city's most iconic parade routes. The West Indian Day Parade, one of the largest street festivals in the United States, draws hundreds of thousands of spectators and participants to Eastern Parkway each year, celebrating the music, food, dance, and cultural traditions of the Caribbean diaspora while also reflecting the deep South Asian presence in the West Indian community — particularly the large Indo-Caribbean population whose roots trace to the indentured laborers brought from India to the Caribbean in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For the city's Indo-Trinidadian, Indo-Guyanese, and Indo-Surinamese communities, the West Indian Day Parade is both a Caribbean celebration and a Desi cultural event, as the parade's food stalls, music, and cultural representations reflect centuries of South Asian influence on Caribbean life. The parade's return this year follows several years of COVID-era disruption and reduced programming, and the full return has been celebrated by community organizers across the Caribbean diaspora in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. [4]

Sources: [2] AP News · [4] FOX 5 New York