Why the Democrats' win in the US matters to us too?

When Humanity Wins, the World Wins: Why America’s Democratic Resurgence Is a Victory for Us All

An affirmation of diversity over discrimination, dignity over hatred, democracy over authoritarianism, and peace over the politics of war.

“Why are you so excited about the Democrats winning elections in faraway America? You live in Kolkata, after all. What difference does their victory make to you?”

A fair question, perhaps.

But my answer is simple: Because humanity has no geographical boundaries. Because justice has no nationality. Because the triumph of a marginalised human being anywhere is a victory for human dignity everywhere.

And because, at a time when the world is increasingly suffocated by hatred, militarism, religious intolerance, racial prejudice, political vulgarity and authoritarian arrogance, even a small victory for compassion deserves celebration.

What happened in the United States on November 3, 2026, was not merely another midterm election. It was a remarkable democratic response to a political culture that had increasingly normalised cruelty as strength, exclusion as patriotism, and aggression as leadership.

The Democrats have reclaimed both chambers of Congress. They have broken Republican dominance in states once considered virtually impregnable. Women, Muslims, Black Americans, Latinos and LGBTQ+ representatives have crossed historic barriers. And voters have delivered a powerful rebuke to an administration whose war with Iran, economic policies and confrontational political style have increasingly troubled the country.

But beyond the headlines are extraordinary human stories.

Stories that deserve to be told, celebrated and remembered.

Amy Acton: When Dignity Defeats Cruelty

Consider the extraordinary journey of Dr Amy Acton, 60, the newly elected Governor of Ohio.

Her childhood was marked by instability, poverty and trauma. She experienced homelessness, including a period living in a tent. Her stepfather was indicted on allegations of sexually abusing her as a child but fled before facing trial. Her mother, from whom she became estranged, lost custody of her children.

Yet this young girl refused to allow the darkness of her childhood to determine the boundaries of her future.

She became a physician. She became Ohio's Director of Health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she emerged as one of the state's most prominent public-health leaders.

And then she entered politics.

Her Republican opponent was billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, backed by Donald Trump and powerful financial interests.

In one of the most disturbing episodes of the election, Ramaswamy's campaign aired an advertisement featuring Acton's estranged mother attacking her daughter's credibility. It weaponised a traumatic family history for political advantage, provoking outrage from people across party lines.

Imagine the cruelty of turning a woman's childhood suffering into an electoral weapon.

But Ohio's voters delivered their verdict.

Amy Acton defeated Ramaswamy, becoming Ohio's first woman elected governor and its first Democratic governor in two decades.

Her message after victory was extraordinary in its simplicity:

“The healing begins today.”

Not revenge. Not humiliation. Not another cycle of hatred.

Healing.

What a magnificent answer to political indecency.

Her victory reminds us that an abused child can grow into a leader, that compassion can defeat calculated cruelty, and that politics need not surrender its humanity to win elections.

Abdul El-Sayed: A Muslim Name, an American Dream, a Universal Message

Now consider Dr Abdul El-Sayed, 42, the son of Egyptian immigrants, a physician, epidemiologist and former public-health official.

He has become the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate, winning Michigan's fiercely contested race against Republican Mike Rogers.

For years, American politics has witnessed attempts to turn Muslim identity, immigrant ancestry and unfamiliar names into objects of suspicion.

El-Sayed faced attacks questioning his loyalty and insinuating connections with extremism without credible evidence. President Trump and other Republicans sought to make his faith and identity political liabilities.

There was also enormous financial opposition. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, spent nearly $30 million opposing him during the Democratic primary. Other powerful political organisations, including networks supported by wealthy conservative donors, poured additional millions into efforts to defeat him.

Yet his campaign insisted on a very different set of priorities.

Universal healthcare. Affordable living. Economic justice. Reduced corporate influence over democracy. A political system that serves ordinary citizens rather than merely its wealthiest beneficiaries.

He also challenged American support for Israeli military policies and argued for a different approach to the suffering in Palestine.

His victory does not mean that every American agrees with every one of his positions. It means something more fundamental: a Muslim American can contest the highest democratic institutions without apologising for his faith, his ancestry or his convictions.

His name did not disqualify him.

His religion did not disqualify him.

His parents' birthplace did not disqualify him.

His voters chose to look beyond the boundaries that prejudice had attempted to construct.

And that is an immensely hopeful development, not only for American Muslims but for every minority community in the world.

Chris Pappas: When Love Walks Onto the Victory Stage

In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas, 46, made another kind of history.

He became the first openly gay man elected to the United States Senate.

After defeating Republican John Sununu, Pappas stood before his supporters with his husband, Vann Bentley, by his side.

He acknowledged the love and strength he had received from his partner throughout his journey.

Think about the significance of that moment.

For generations, LGBTQ+ individuals have faced discrimination, humiliation, exclusion and even violence simply for being who they are and loving whom they love.

Even in wealthy democracies, many have had to conceal their identities to survive professionally and politically.

But here was an American senator-elect publicly celebrating the man he loved.

Not in secrecy. Not in shame. Not in fear.

In the full light of democracy.

Pappas's electoral philosophy is not identical to that of progressive candidates such as El-Sayed. That is precisely the point: the defence of human dignity need not depend on complete ideological agreement.

A truly democratic society does not demand that everyone live alike. It demands that everyone have the freedom to live with equal dignity.

Hakeem Jeffries: Breaking the Architecture of Exclusion

Then there is Hakeem Jeffries, 56.

Since 2023, he has led the Democrats in the House of Representatives, carrying the responsibility of political opposition during an increasingly polarised period.

Now, with Democrats winning control of the House, Jeffries has announced his candidacy for Speaker.

If elected when the new Congress convenes, he will become the first Black Speaker in American history.

That possibility carries immense historical weight.

A country that institutionalised slavery, enforced racial segregation and denied generations of Black citizens equal political participation may soon place an African American at the head of one of its most powerful legislative institutions.

This does not erase the country's history of racial injustice.

But it demonstrates that history is not necessarily destiny.

The barriers built over centuries can be challenged through organised democratic action.

And the institutions that once excluded people can, through struggle and perseverance, become instruments of greater inclusion.

Keisha Lance Bottoms: A Black Woman Rewrites American History

In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, 56, the former mayor of Atlanta, has become the first Black woman elected governor in the history of the United States.

This is not merely a symbolic milestone.

It is a political and historical breakthrough in a country where Black women have been central to community organisation, civil-rights activism, public education and democratic mobilisation, yet have remained dramatically underrepresented at the highest levels of executive power.

Georgia itself carries a painful history of racial segregation and the denial of Black voting rights.

From that history emerges an extraordinary new possibility.

A Black woman now stands elected to govern the state.

The granddaughter of generations that confronted discrimination inherits the responsibility of building a more inclusive future.

Her victory belongs to the long moral tradition of those who fought to make citizenship more than a legal phrase.

It is another reminder that democracy grows stronger when those historically denied power finally have the opportunity to exercise it.

Gina Hinojosa: Texas Rejects Political Inevitability

In Texas, Gina Hinojosa, 52, achieved what many had considered improbable.

She defeated incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott, ending more than three decades of Republican control of the Texas governorship.

She will become the state's first Latina governor.

Texas has been central to some of America's most contentious political disputes over immigration, reproductive rights, education, cultural identity and the boundaries of government power.

Its border communities embody generations of migration, labour, cultural exchange and interwoven American and Mexican histories.

Against this background, the election of a Latina governor is especially meaningful.

It challenges the political assumption that a state belongs permanently to one ideology or one party.

It also challenges the suggestion that people of immigrant heritage or minority backgrounds should remain peripheral to the American political story.

No community is condemned to perpetual political exclusion. No political fortress is beyond democratic change.

Texas has demonstrated that the supposedly impossible can become possible through the ballot.

David Crowley: The Power of an Overlooked Voice

In Wisconsin, David Crowley, 40, has become the state's first Black governor.

The former Milwaukee County Executive defeated Republican Tom Tiffany, achieving another historic breakthrough in American state leadership.

Crowley's victory represents something profoundly democratic: the widening of political possibility for people whose communities have often been excluded from centres of power.

It is not enough for democracy to promise formal equality.

Its promise becomes meaningful when leadership reflects the diversity of the people it is meant to serve.

When young Black children in Wisconsin look at their governor, they can now see someone who challenges inherited assumptions about what is possible for them.

That change in imagination is itself a public good.

And there were other historic breakthroughs, including Deb Haaland's election in New Mexico as the country's first Native American woman governor.

Across different states, Americans were enlarging the meaning of representation.

Beyond Identity: The Return of Social and Economic Justice

These victories are not important simply because of the religion, race, gender or sexual orientation of the candidates.

Identity matters because exclusion has been real.

But representation becomes transformative only when it is accompanied by meaningful public service and policies that improve people's lives.

That is why the resurgence of progressive ideas is equally significant.

For much of the twentieth century, socialism in America was treated with deep suspicion. During periods such as the Red Scare and McCarthyism, left-wing activists and thinkers suffered political persecution, blacklisting and professional ruin.

Yet today, ideas once dismissed as dangerously radical are increasingly entering mainstream democratic debate.

Universal healthcare. Living wages. Affordable housing. Public education. Wealth taxation. Workers' rights. Corporate accountability.

These are not necessarily revolutionary threats to society. They are proposals addressing fundamental questions about human welfare, opportunity and the distribution of prosperity.

The electoral journeys of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed belong, in different ways, to this larger political transformation.

Mamdani's rise in New York and El-Sayed's victory in Michigan demonstrate that younger, diverse and economically progressive political voices are no longer confined to the margins.

The argument is shifting from whether the poor deserve support to whether public institutions are doing enough to secure basic human dignity.

The wealthiest country in the world must still answer a difficult question: why should millions of its citizens struggle to afford healthcare, housing and education?

That is a question deserving serious democratic debate, not ideological abuse.

The War in Iran: A Rejection of Militarism and the Arrogance of Power

But perhaps the most consequential message from this election concerns something far larger than the United States.

The devastating war with Iran.

The American and Israeli military campaign that began in February 2026 has brought enormous human suffering, regional instability, environmental damage and economic disruption.

Families have been displaced. Civilians have suffered. Infrastructure has been damaged. The danger of further escalation has haunted the Middle East.

The repercussions have travelled far beyond the region, affecting energy prices, economic confidence and the lives of ordinary people elsewhere.

The November elections were not a referendum on one issue alone. Voters were also concerned about inflation, healthcare, immigration enforcement, tariffs and political conduct.

Yet the Iran war unquestionably became part of the democratic reckoning. Even Trump and Vice President JD Vance acknowledged its contribution to Republican losses.

This is important.

Because wars are too often announced by leaders who will never endure the consequences personally.

The bombs fall on somebody else's neighbourhood.

The children who lose their schools are somebody else's children.

The mothers waiting outside hospitals are somebody else's mothers.

The young soldiers returning in coffins are somebody else's sons and daughters.

And the powerful continue to speak the language of strategic necessity.

But no geopolitical ambition can make an innocent human life expendable.

To oppose the war in Iran is not to endorse the Iranian government's repression, nor to excuse attacks on civilians by any side. It is to insist that the lives of Iranian, Israeli, Palestinian, American and other people must be valued with the same moral seriousness.

Security cannot be built permanently on collective punishment, indiscriminate destruction or endless retaliation.

The region needs diplomacy, accountable leadership, respect for international law and a durable peace.

The people of Iran deserve sovereignty, freedom, safety and self-determination. The people of Israel deserve security. The people of Palestine deserve freedom, dignity and justice.

These aspirations should not be presented as mutually exclusive.

Peace is not the victory of one people over another. Peace is the victory of our shared humanity over the machinery of hatred.

And if the American electorate has begun questioning the political leadership responsible for prolonging this conflict, that is an important opening for the possibility of peace.

It is not yet peace itself.

But it is reason to hope.

The Rejection of Political Vulgarity and Authoritarian Temptation

There is another dimension to this election that deserves attention.

The deterioration of public discourse has become a worldwide problem.

Political opponents are increasingly described as enemies. Minorities are turned into convenient scapegoats. Dissent is dismissed as disloyalty. Cruel jokes, personal humiliation and inflammatory falsehoods masquerade as political courage.

Across democracies, including India, there is a disturbing temptation to equate aggressive rhetoric with strong leadership.

But strength and vulgarity are not synonyms.

Nor are patriotism and intolerance.

A confident leader does not need to humiliate the vulnerable. A secure nation does not need to persecute minorities. And a mature democracy does not measure greatness by its capacity to intimidate dissenters.

The fascistic tendencies visible in contemporary politics—the glorification of unquestionable leadership, the manufacture of internal enemies, the normalisation of contempt and the weakening of institutional restraints—must be resisted wherever they appear.

The American results offer hope that such tendencies can be confronted through democratic participation.

We must not romanticise the outcome. Every Democratic winner is not a progressive. Every Republican is not an authoritarian. Electoral victory does not automatically establish moral superiority, and no party possesses a monopoly on justice.

The true test lies in policies, institutions, constitutional commitments and the treatment of those who disagree.

Nevertheless, these elections have demonstrated that money cannot always purchase public consent, inflammatory rhetoric cannot always defeat reason, and political intimidation cannot extinguish democratic possibility.

Democracy remains capable of correcting its own course.

Why This Victory Belongs to Kolkata, Too

So let us return to that original question.

Why should someone living in Kolkata celebrate an election in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, Texas or New Hampshire?

Because the world is not a collection of isolated moral islands.

The same forces that threaten human dignity in America operate elsewhere under different names, different flags and different slogans.

Religious hatred in one country strengthens bigotry in another.

Racial discrimination anywhere makes the universal promise of equality weaker.

Political authoritarianism in one democracy encourages its imitation elsewhere.

And every war expands the possibility of the next war.

But hope travels, too.

The victory of a woman who survived childhood trauma tells millions of survivors that their past need not imprison their future.

The election of a Muslim senator tells religious minorities that their identities need not condemn them to the margins.

The victory of an openly gay senator tells young people that love need not be hidden to earn public respect.

The emergence of Black and Latina governors tells historically excluded communities that political institutions can belong to them, too.

And the electoral rejection of unnecessary war tells people everywhere that leaders can be questioned and that the ballot can still become an instrument of accountability.

These are not merely American stories.

They are human stories.

As someone living in Bengal, a land shaped by extraordinary traditions of social reform, pluralism, literature, resistance to colonialism and struggles for justice, I cannot remain indifferent to such developments.

Our moral imagination should never end at our national borders.

If we can grieve for children killed in Gaza, Iran, Ukraine or Sudan, surely we can also celebrate the victory of those who challenge injustice thousands of kilometres away.

Human solidarity is not a matter of passports.

It is a matter of conscience.

The Future Must Belong to Hope

Of course, elections alone cannot defeat hatred.

Prejudice does not vanish because a minority candidate wins. War does not end merely because voters punish a government. Economic inequality does not disappear when progressive candidates enter legislative chambers.

The real work begins after the celebration.

Governments must deliver. Institutions must defend freedom. Political leaders must restore civility. Citizens must remain vigilant.

And the winners must resist becoming the very forces they once opposed.

But history has never advanced only through grand revolutions.

Sometimes it advances when one abused girl becomes a governor.

When one immigrant's son becomes a senator.

When two men can stand together before their country without disguising their love.

When a Black woman enters an office no Black woman has held before.

When a supposedly impregnable political fortress falls before the peaceful power of ordinary voters.

When a nation begins asking whether war has consumed too much of its conscience.

And when millions of people quietly decide that enough is enough.

Enough hatred.

Enough humiliation.

Enough racial and religious scapegoating.

Enough militaristic arrogance.

Enough politics without compassion.

The future is not guaranteed to belong to justice. History has taught us that freedom can retreat and that democracies can betray their own promises.

But history has also taught us something else.

Human courage can overcome fear. Solidarity can challenge privilege. Compassion can defeat cruelty. And hope, when organised into collective action, can become a formidable political force.

So yes, I am happy.

I am happy when a marginalised person wins anywhere.

I am happy when a wall of prejudice collapses.

I am happy when dignity defeats humiliation, when love defeats shame, when democracy restrains arrogance, and when people demand peace instead of another war.

I celebrate not because every Democrat is virtuous or every Republican is wrong.

I celebrate because these particular victories have enlarged the possibilities of freedom, equality and human dignity.

And because, in a world dangerously divided by borders, religions, races and political identities, they remind us of a truth far older and greater than any political party:

No human being is a stranger to humanity.

Every barrier broken by the excluded expands the freedom of us all. Every victory over hatred gives hope another chance. Every step towards peace is a victory for the entire world.

And whenever humanity wins, wherever it wins, the celebration belongs to all of us.

Even those of us watching from faraway Kolkata.

For humanity has no borders. Dignity has no religion. Love has no prescribed identity. Justice has no nationality. And hope must never have an expiry date.

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