US election: In India, Kamala Harris’ ancestral village prays for her victory
- Posters of Harris have been plastered around Thulasendrapuram, the South Indian village where Harris’ maternal grandfather was born
- Locals in neighbouring areas are also conducting an ‘abhishekam’ – which sometimes involves pouring milk over the idol of a Hindu god – to pray for her success
The village, located about 320km south of the city of Chennai, is where Harris’ maternal grandfather was born more than a century ago.
“From Thulasendrapuram to America”, declares one of the nearly dozen banners from where Harris smiles out in the village. “We, the people of Thulasendrapuram, wish for the electoral success of American vice-president nominee Kamala Harris, whose ancestors were a native of Thulasendrapuram.”
Harris’ grandfather PV Gopalan and his family migrated to Chennai nearly 90 years ago, where he retired as a high-ranking government official.
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Kamala Harris’ ancestral village in India prays for her victory in US presidential election
Harris, who was born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father who both immigrated to the US to study, visited Thulasendrapuram when she was just five and has repeatedly recalled her formative walks with her grandfather on the beaches of Chennai.
Gopalan’s childhood home in Thulasendrapuram does not exist any more, villagers say, and cows and goats were seen grazing on empty plots of land where the house he grew up in once stood.