Why people in this remote village say Kamala Harris 'makes us proud' - MASHAHER

Key Points

Some residents of a remote village in India’s south say they are ‘praying’ for a Kamala Harris presidential victory because of her grandparents’ connection to the area.
SBS Tamil spoke to many, including a temple priest, who say Harris has put them on a world map.
But some question her links, saying her grandfather left the village for Chennai 70 years ago.

People celebrated in the streets with fireworks and houses were decorated in bright colours in the tiny village of Thulasendrapuram when the results of the 2020 US presidential election were announced.

Kamala Harris assumed the position of US Vice President, the first African-American and Asian-American to hold that office.

Four years on, villagers have been closely observing the presidential race following Joe Biden’s withdrawal, with Harris set to contest for the top job opposite former president Donald Trump, on November 5.

“This is a very small village. The reason why it is world famous now is because of Kamala Harris. We are praying every day that she should become the President of America,” resident Kannan Sundaram said.

Another resident, Krishnamurthy Narayanaswamy, said: “We can not assume that China, Pakistan, Bangladesh or even Sri Lanka to be friendly countries. But if this lady becomes the president of America, then we can be sure that America will become more friendly with India.”

Thulasendrapuram in the Tiruvarur district, located 300km south of Chennai (formerly Madras), is where Harris’s maternal grandparents — Painganadu Venkataraman (PV) Gopalan and Rajam Gopalan — were from.

Kamala Harris’s ancestral home is Thulasendrapuram village, which is 300km south of Chennai, in India’s Tamil Nadu.

The village is home to 350 people and features five temples (Sri Santana Mariamman Kovil, Sri Sevaga Perumal Kovil, Sri Dharma Sastra, Sri Rama Ganapathy, and Sri Vallabha Mahaganapathi) and a lake (Thamarai Kulam).

In 2014, Harris made a financial contribution towards renovations of the Sri Dharma Sastra temple, via her aunt, Sarala.

Her donation of 5,000 rupees (about $90) is commemorated on a plaque at the temple. SBS Tamil visited the village and spoke with the temple’s priest, Natarajan Mariyappan.

After their mother’s passing, Kamala and Maya visited Chennai to immerse her ashes in the sea, following Hindu traditions.

“Kamala Harris is a progeny of our village. She makes us all proud,” Mariyappan said.

Life In Kamala Harris' Ancestral Village

A taxi driver reads names of donors in the Sri Dharma Sastra temple in Thulasendrapuram, India. Credit: Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images

“About 70 years ago, a gentleman by the name of PV Gopalan lived in the village with his three children — Shyamala, Sarala, and Balachandran. He later moved to the city of Madras (now Chennai). Shyamala is Kamala Harris’s mother,” Mariyappan said.

Harris’s maternal uncle, Gopalan Balachandran, is an academic based in Delhi and has also worked as a consultant at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA).

In an earlier interview with SBS Tamil, Balachandran said his father, PV Gopalan, worked to rehabilitate refugees from East Pakistan in India and later served as an adviser to the Zambian president while living in Lusaka, and his mother was engaged in social work.

PV’s eldest daughter, Shyamala Gopalan, was born and raised in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu.

At the age of 19, Shyamala was accepted into a master’s program at the University of California, Berkeley. It was there that she met Harris’s father, Donald Harris, an economist from Jamaica.

A poster of US presidential hopeful, Kamala Harris, in her ancestral village Thulasendrapuram in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Source: AFP / IDREES MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images

The two foreign graduate students married in 1963 and had two daughters, Kamala and Maya, before divorcing in 1971. Shyamala, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist in California, raised her two daughters as a single mother.

According to Balachandran, and as recounted by the temple priests, Harris remains deeply connected to her Indian roots, both through her upbringing and visits to Chennai.

A woman walks past a poster of US Vice President Kamala Harris in her ancestral village of Thulasendrapuram in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Source: AFP / IDREES MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images

In 2020, during a virtual campaign event commemorating India’s Independence Day, Harris spoke fondly of her mother’s love for good idli (fermented rice and lentil cakes).

“She wanted us to understand where she came from and our ancestral roots. And of course, she always wanted to instil in us a love for good idli,” Harris joked.

She also reminisced about walking along the beaches in Chennai with her grandfather and listening to his stories about his involvement in India’s freedom struggle.

Though Harris grew up in the US, her family maintained strong ties with India, a connection she proudly acknowledged. “India is a very important part of my life,” she said during a state visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2021.

SBS Tamil spoke to villagers who expressed hope that, if elected president, Harris would further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Many corners of the village display banners celebrating Harris, with one villager commenting that if they could vote for her, they would.

However, Narayanaswamy shared a different perspective, telling SBS Tamil that the village has little connection to Harris. He noted that her grandfather left the village over 70 years ago and settled in Chennai.

Source Agencies