In Kamala Harris’ ancestral village in India, individuals cheer her U.S. presidential bid

THULASENDRAPURAM, India — At a small temple in southern India, a gaggle of individuals has been praying day by day since late final month: “May Kamala Harris win this election. May she visit this temple and do good for our village.”

The neighborhood of two,000 individuals, surrounded by rice fields, is the ancestral village of Kamala Harris, the place her maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan lived some 100 years in the past. His daughter, Harris’ mom Shyamala Gopalan, emigrated from India to the US, the place she met and married Donald Harris, a fellow graduate pupil who’d come to review from Jamaica.

Some information experiences say Harris, who was born and raised in California, visited Thulasendrapuram as a younger little one, however residents cannot affirm she’s ever been. (The Harris marketing campaign didn’t reply to NPR’s request for remark). Harris has usually mirrored on the significance of her childhood visits together with her maternal grandfather in Chennai, however would not point out his village in her memoir, The Truths We Maintain.

Even so, when President Biden dropped out of the U.S. presidential race final month, Thulasendrapuram politician Arulmozhi Sudhakar and her husband began organizing prayers for Harris on the native temple, with every day choices of milk and coconuts to the deity.

The ritual attracted native and worldwide consideration. Two days after Harris emerged because the Democratic frontrunner, Arulmozhi was scheduled to offer half a dozen interviews to journalists visiting her village. She turned up in a silk sari and sandalwood fragrance and took the time without work from her duties as an elected member of the city council.

“I can relate to [Harris’] struggles as a woman politician,” she instructed NPR. What she mentioned she admires most is Harris’ potential “to smile while facing all the political challenges.”

Arulmozhi Sudhakar factors to the identify of P.V. Gopalan, Kamala Harris’ maternal grandfather, inscribed on a wall of the native Hindu temple. Harris’ personal identify can also be inscribed on the temple wall. The temple’s trustee says an aunt of Harris who lives in India donated 5,000 rupees (roughly $60) in 2014 to the temple in her niece’s identify.

Omkar Khandekar/NPR

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Omkar Khandekar/NPR

4 years in the past, when Biden and Harris had been elected, residents of Thulasendrapuram celebrated with music and firecrackers. Kids carried placards with Harris’ face and girls drew photos with colourful rangoli powder.

Again then, Arulmozhi put up billboards of a beaming Kamala Harris throughout the village, congratulating her for bringing them honor. She’s put them up this time too, solely the brand new boards additionally embody Arulmozhi’s personal portraits.

The trustee of the native temple, S.V. Ramanan, says the spectacle is generally for the media.

“Most of them are happy not about Kamala Harris running for the presidency, but because they are appearing in front of a TV camera,” he says of the villagers.

NPR spoke with greater than a dozen individuals within the village, situated within the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Most are farmers or do odd jobs in close by cities, incomes subsistence wages resulting from lack of employment alternatives at dwelling.

Practically everybody expressed pleasure at Harris’ candidacy however couldn’t converse a lot of the form of politician she is, or what she stands for. Most didn’t know of her concern over India’s controversial resolution to revoke the semi-autonomous standing of Muslim-majority Kashmir, a territory the place many assert an id separate from India, or of her confession to Indian American actress Mindy Kaling that she had by no means earlier than made dosas, a staple dish in Tamil Nadu.

Villagers holding pictures of Kamala Harris distribute sweets to have fun Harris’ inauguration as U.S. vp in January 2021, in Harris’ ancestral village of Thulasendrapuram.

Arun Sankar/AFP through Getty Pictures

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Arun Sankar/AFP through Getty Pictures

Arulmozhi insists Harris is the “daughter of the land.”

“A mother doesn’t raise a child with any expectations,” she says. “She celebrates their achievements as her own.”

In the remainder of India, Harris’ bid for the White Home hasn’t evoked the form of euphoria her vice presidency did 4 years in the past, when many native politicians known as it a second of satisfaction for Indians.

However one shouldn’t learn an excessive amount of into Harris’ Indian roots, says Ashutosh Varshney, a political scientist at Brown College.

“Her Black identity is bigger than her Indian identity. And that’s only natural, given where she grew up,” he says.

A view of the Sri Dharmasastha temple in Thulasendrapuram, July 23.

Idrees Mohammed/AFP through Getty Pictures

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Idrees Mohammed/AFP through Getty Pictures

Varshney provides that there is little proof that, if elected president, Harris would change U.S. coverage towards India. “The sweet spot India occupies is that so long as America and China are the primary adversaries, India will be seen by the United States and the West as a very important ally.”

Again in Thulasendrapuram, media consideration has had sudden advantages. Residents say that after the village appeared on TV in 2020, a neighborhood financial institution adopted the village for welfare works as a part of its neighborhood outreach.

That form of assistance is why the native librarian, R. Usha, needs Harris to win — and pay a go to.

“The roads near my neighborhood are damaged,” she says, including that if Harris comes, authorities would little question roll out the pink carpet. And that, she hopes, would additionally cowl the potholes.

Vinodh Arulappan contributed to this story in Thulasendrapuram.