Residents hold placards with the portrait of US Democratic Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, as they celebrate her victory in the US election, at her ancestral village of Thulasendrapuram
Credit: STR/AFP
You’d be forgiven for thinking Diwali celebrations had begun one week early in the small Indian village of Thulasendrapuram.
But, it was here, some 8,000 miles from the White House in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu that the grandmother of Kamala Harris, the next vice president of the United States, was born.
A cheer erupts amongst a group of men, sitting around the village’s leader, all transfixed by the updates on their phones.
“From a country like India, in which women have very little privilege, it is still extremely difficult for a woman to dream about even becoming a village president,” Malarvannan, the village’s leader, told the Sunday Telegraph.
“What she has achieved and how she has worked hard is unimaginable. We are proud of her, not only because she has her roots in this village.”
Kamala Harris will become the first female, African-American, and significantly for the villagers in Thulasendrapuram, Asian-American vice president in the country’s history.
Born in Oakland, California to her Indian emigre mother, Shymala, and her Jamaican father Donald, her election inspires hope of a more tolerant United States after the divisive presidency of Donald Trump.
For schoolgirls in Thulasendrapuram and across India, her appointment dares them to dream.
A man walks past paintings of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in Mumbai
Credit: Rajanish Kakade /AP
“My fellow girl students and I are very inspired hearing stories about our akkas [sister in Tamil] Kamala Harris,” said Viji Vijayalakshmi, a village high school student.
“We are determined to achieve at least ten percent of what she has and work hard in our passion to become a junior Kamala Harris.”
Ms Harris embraced her Indian roots while on the campaign trail and revealed she draws motivation from long holiday walks on Chennai’s Elliot’s Beach with her grandfather, an Indian civil servant who vocally opposed British colonial rule.
“My father would instill Indian traditions in Kamala during these walks, why we do certain things, and our politics. I’m not sure exactly what he said but it seems to have worked,” Professor Gopalan Balachandran, Kamala’s uncle who lives in New Delhi, told the Sunday Telegraph.
There is “no question” Ms Harris will run for president in 2024, according to Professor Balachandran, with the soon-to-be vice president offered more responsibility than anyone else previously in her role as Joe Biden becomes the oldest president in history at 77-years-old.
Perhaps the greater influence on Ms Harris, though, is that of her mother Shymala who was born in the city of Chennai.
Shymala emigrated to California alone in the 1950s to complete a master’s degree — confounding society’s expectations of an Indian woman — and immersed herself and her daughters in the civil rights movement.
“Shymala told her children to study well but that it wasn’t the end of the story and when they finished law school both entered public prosecution to help those who weren’t so privileged,” explains Professor Balachandran, who will attend Kamala’a inauguration in January.
Local villagers draw 'kolams' wishing Kamala Harris success as vice-president
Credit: -/-
Walking around Shymala’s old neighbourhood of Besant Nagar, it is clear how proud its residents are of Kamala and her mother.
At the Varasiddhi Vinayakar Temple, its Hindu priest broke 108 coconuts with her aunt, Sarala Gopalan, ahead of the US going to the polls.
When the Sunday Telegraph visited for a packed prayer ceremony there in Ms Harris’s honour, a diminutive lady who looks after the footwear of the devoted took us aside.
“It has been more than a decade, but I still remember meeting Kamala Harris. She was seemingly quiet but was also quite jovial when talking to us,” said K Ranjini, with a broad smile.
Back in Thulasendrapuram, the celebrations are escalating with sweets distributed to children and a flower drawn in the village square under the headings “we are proud of you Kamala” and “India’s daughter Kamala.”
With a mischievous grin, Thulasendrapuram’s priest leads this reporter to the village temple where he reveals a list of donors — featuring one Miss Kamala Harris, who gifted ₹5,000 (£51) to its restoration.
“We are not just proud but emotional. My ancestors have been very close to her family,” said the priest, Natarajan.
“A woman this successful is making everyone of us proud, now the whole state knows the name of our village.”
Additional reporting from Gunavathy Manavalan in Thulasendrapuram and Karthikeyan Hemalatha in Chennai
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