‘Kamala is from our soil:’ Villagers praise victory
Biden’s running mate first person of South Asian descent to be chosen as vice president
It was a moment to remember.
As Kamala Harris made history on Saturday by becoming the first woman, the first black person and the first person of South Asian descent to be chosen as US vice president, residents of Thulasenthirapuram, her ancestral village in India, embraced each other amid cheers and tears of joy. Thulasenthirapuram, located nearly 350 km from Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai, wore a festive look on Sunday with people bursting crackers, distributing sweets and offering special prayers in the village temple. Some had even decorated the outside of their houses. “We all know that today is a very big day for all of us,” Meenakshi Surya Prakash, an 18-year-old student and resident of the village, told Arab News.
“A woman of Indian origin has been elected as the vice president of the US. This is a proud moment for us,” she said.
Harris’s grandfather, P. V. Gopalan, was born in Thulasenthirapuram, where the family still has a temple at which villagers converge to pray. “She is from our soil. We also expect that Kamala Harris will take every step for the betterment and welfare of Indians living in the US and India,” Prakash said.
Harris’ relatives said that they had expected her to win.
“It really feels good. I knew it would happen and I am happy about it,” Harris’ maternal aunt, Dr. Sarala Gopalan, told Arab News on Sunday.
Based in Chennai, capital of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Dr. Gopalan said that she was “not tense” during the vote counting process, anticipating that US President-elect Joe Biden would win.
“We knew that Joe Biden had a good lead, but we didn’t know how to trust the samples ... that’s all,” she said.
Two days before Saturday’s announcement, Dr. Gopalan said that she had a brief chat with Harris, but the questions were not “political.” “I just asked her if she is all right and all is well?” she said, smiling.
Harris has always been vocal about being proud of her roots and her mother’s role in that. After her mother’s death in 2009, Harris “continued to stay in touch” with her mother’s relatives in India. “I am only worried about her welfare because her mother is not there, so I have to take care of her as a mother,” Dr. Gopalan said. On Saturday night, Harris, in her first address to the nation, recalled her mother’s journey from India as a 19-year-old in 1959.
“I am grateful to the woman most responsible for my presence here today, my mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. When she came here from India at the age of 19, she maybe didn’t imagine this moment. But she believed so deeply in America where a moment like this is possible,” she said.
Harris’ Delhi-based maternal uncle, Balachandran Gopalan, said that he was “glued to his TV but never for once doubted her victory.”
I am grateful to the woman most responsible for my presence here today, my mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. When she came here from India at the age of 19, she maybe didn’t imagine this moment. But she believed so deeply in America where a moment like this is possible.