Tiny Indian Village Claims Her as Its Own

Thulasendhrapuram, a small village about 300 km from the southern Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) and 14,000 km from Washington DC, is the hometown of Kamala Harris’ maternal grandparents.

The village centre now proudly displays a large banner featuring a picture of Ms Harris, 59.

Special prayers are being offered to the local deity for her success – Mrs Harris and her grandfather’s names are on the list of donors to the village shrine – and sweets are also being distributed.

Villagers are closely watching the US presidential race after Joe Biden withdrew and Ms Harris emerged as a potential candidate.

“It was not easy for her to reach her current position in the most powerful country in the world,” said Krishnamurthi, a retired banker.

“We are really proud of her. Indians were ruled by foreigners before, now Indians are leading powerful nations.”

There was also a sense of pride, especially among women, who saw Ms Harris as one of their own, a symbol of what women everywhere can do.

“Everyone knows her, even the children. ‘My sister, my mother’ – that’s what they call her,” said Arulmozhi Sudhakar, a local government representative in the village.

“We are happy that she has not forgotten her roots and we express that joy.”

The excitement and spectacle was reminiscent of the crowds who took to the streets with fireworks, posters and calendars when Ms Harris became vice president.

There was a communal feast where hundreds of people enjoyed traditional southern dishes. Indian dishes like sambar and idli, according to one of Ms Harris’ relatives, were her favourites.

Ms Harris is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher who came from the southern state of Tamil Nadu before moving to the United States in 1958. Gopalan’s parents are from Thulasendhrapuram.

“My mother, Shyamala, came to the United States from India alone at the age of 19. She was a force to be reckoned with – a scientist, a civil rights activist, and a proud mother to her two daughters,” Harris said. said in a social media post last year..

Ms Harris visited Chennai with her sister Maya after their mother passed away and scattered her ashes at sea in accordance with Hindu tradition, according to the report. The Hindu newspaper .

Ms Harris comes from a family of high achievers. Her maternal uncle, Gopalan Balachandran, was an academic. Her paternal grandfather, PV Gopalan, rose to become an Indian civil servant and a refugee resettlement expert.

He also served as an advisor to Zambia’s first president in the 1960s.

“She (Kamala) has been a prominent figure for quite some time. This is not a big surprise. Something like this has been in the planning for many years,” said R Rajaraman, emeritus professor of theoretical physics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and a classmate of Ms Harris’s mother.

Professor Rajaraman said he lost contact with Shyamala but met her again in the mid-1970s when he came to the United States and met Ms. Gopalan at Berkeley.

“Shyamala was there. She gave me a cup of tea. These two kids (Kamala and her sister Maya) were there. They weren’t paying any attention,” he recalled.

“They are both dynamic people. There is positivity in her mother, and that is also in Kamala.”

Back in Thulasenhrapuram, villagers are expecting an announcement of her candidacy soon.

“Kamala’s mother’s sister Chithi (Sarala’s sister) used to visit this temple regularly. In 2014, she donated 5,000 rupees ($60; £46) on behalf of Kamala Harris,” said Natarajan, the temple’s priest.

Natarajan believes their prayers will help Ms. Harris win the election.

The villagers said they may be thousands of miles away from America, but they felt connected to her journey. They hoped she would visit them one day or that the village would be mentioned in her speech.