Madison Avenue came alive as thousands of revelers took to the streets for the India Day Parade 2024 on Sunday, August 18. It was the 42nd year of the Indian Independence Day celebrations, whose historic date is August 15, 1947. The event, which bills itself as the largest India Day Parade in the world, is sponsored by the American India Foundation and thrilled almost everyone in attendance.

If there was an exception to the joy generated by the colorful spectacle, which stretched from East 38th Street down to Madison Square Park and included a bazaar of delicious food, it was probably due to a pre-parade controversy that ended up being the only attention many media outlets paid to the event, even though parades in general are a telling gauge of street life and city politics at any given time.

In short, the interfaith fuss revolved around a float carrying a miniature replica of the Ram Mandir, the temple of Lord Rama, dedicated to one of the most revered deities of Hinduism, in Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Readers of ancient Indian epics such as the Ramayana And The Mahabharata will also recognize Ayodhya as an important place name.

As early as the 16th century, more precisely in 1528-1529, before there was a proper Indian nation, the Mughal Empire existed and an Islamic mosque called Babri Masjid, which was built on the site of Ram Janmabhroomi, which is revered by Hindus as the birthplace of Rama.

Fast forward five centuries to December 1992, when a rally of over 100,000 Hindu nationalists turned violent and the Babri Mosque was demolished.

In India, an estimated 2,000 people were killed in the ensuing riots between Hindus and Muslims. Anti-Hindu reprisals also occurred in the predominantly Islamic country of Bangladesh and in the Islamic State of Pakistan.

In contrast, nearly 80 percent of Indians are Hindus, followed by Islam at about 14 percent, then Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, animism, Jainism, and down to parts of Baha’i (well known to jazz New Yorkers through Dizzy Gillespie’s promotion of the faith) and Zoroastrianism. There are even a few thousand Jews in India.

Confused? If so, you are not the only one, and with no disrespect to those harmed, this is why the public letter of complaint from the Indian American Muslim Council, the Council on American Islamic Relations and other groups provoked the ambiguous and contradictory reactions it did.

The signatories of the letter addressed to Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul asserted that the Ram Madri float was “not just a cultural demonstration but a vulgar celebration of anti-Islamic incitement, bigotry and religious supremacy.” India, the letter said, is a secular country.

While other observers have been expressing their belief for decades that the rise of Hindu nationalist politics poses a threat both to minority groups in India and to secular liberal politics in general, these issues are little known, if not esoteric, outside Indian diaspora circles.

Mayor Adams, for his part, said: “Nobody should be against conversation when participating in these parades… I want to send a symbolic message that the city is open to everyone and there is no place for hate.”

The organizers of the parade denied this interpretation, defended freedom of expression, and on Sunday the float rolled on without causing any disruption.

Although this does not provide a solution for India or the Indian diaspora, it does confirm the overall theme of this year’s parade: “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “The world is one family”.

And as the gods (plural) know, not all families get along, and the stories behind family feuds often have more than two sides.

For the thousands of enthusiastic visitors to Madison Avenue, the parade was a wonderful expression of cultural pride – but not intended to silence critics or comfort foreign believers.

Mayor Adams himself was not present—whether this was related to the Ram Mandir controversy is unclear—but the NYPD was present, including two imposing mounted police officers, the police department’s marching band, and the Desi Society, representing South Asian and Indo-Caribbean police officers, at the front of the parade. (Adams participated in the Queens India Day Parade a week later, an event for which he was grand marshal.)

Celebrities who followed the NYPD’s finest included actress Sonaksi Sinha, who was also Grand Marshal that year, Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi and actor and politician Manoj Tiwari.

Among the forty floats were fifty brass bands and other performers, as well as countless saffron-orange, white and green flags of India. Representatives of the Indian Consul General were also present.

As with the recent Dominican Day Parade, a float promoting Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance refuted common assumptions about “minority politics” in the city.

The fact that this happened on the eve of the Democratic Party Convention, at which half-Indian-American Kamala Harris was to accept her party’s nomination, was an irony that could not escape any observer.

Likewise, banners protesting violence against Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh provided a striking contrast—or is that a complement?—to the controversy that preceded the parade.

As for the visually stunning float to the Ram Mandir that attracted so much ire and attention, its sponsoring group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), showed no remorse.

In statements released after the parade, the VHPA not only quoted parade participants expressing gratitude for the float (“The presence of the replica of the Ram Mandir was a powerful symbol of our shared heritage and values ​​and resonated with all in attendance”), but also referred to its critics as “fringe Muslim groups and their cronies.”

And to close the circle of not entirely harmonious “inclusion,” an unexpected Jewish voice was also heard.

Sherona Varulkar Kelley, a community leader of the Jews of India who participated in the parade, said, “We are so proud that we could march in solidarity with our Hindu brothers and sisters. India is a very special place for the Jews. India, our motherland, has given us protection for over two thousand years. Jews, especially the Bene Israel of Maharashtra, have never known anti-Semitism. Only in India! Our love, respect and eternal gratitude goes out to all Hindus.”

Or, as the legendary Cindy Adams would proclaim: “Only in New York, kids, only in New York.”