Harris’ family history has made her popular with the Indian public, with celebrities, industrialists and even politicians celebrating the announcement.

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Who is Kamala Harris? Joe Biden’s vice-president pick

Who is Kamala Harris? Joe Biden’s vice-president pick

The VP nominee has often talked about her Indian family and has called her mother and her grandfather, PV Gopalan, two of the “most influential people in my life”. PV Gopalan was a freedom fighter who took part in India’s bid to overthrow British colonial rule.

Her mother’s family still lives in India.

“There is no question about how happy we are,” Harris’ maternal uncle, Balachandran Gopalan, an academic in the Indian capital of New Delhi, said on Wednesday.

“She is a very committed personality – committed to public service and most importantly committed to common human decency.”

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Shyamala Gopalan would often bring her daughters to India and when she died in 2009, Harris returned “to immerse her ashes in the Bay of Bengal”, the uncle said.

Although Harris did not speak Tamil, the language of the southern state, “she can understand a little bit”, he said.

Balachandran Gopalan said the nomination of Kamala – whose name means “lotus” in Tamil, as well as in Sanskrit and Hindi – was a “big deal” for Indian-Americans.

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Trump ‘pleaded’ for China to help him get re-elected, writes former US adviser Bolton in new book

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“So far [Indian-Americans] have only achieved high professional jobs, but this is one of the highest political jobs,” he said.

Harris’ aunt Sarala Gopalan, a doctor who still lives in the city her big sister left at 19, said the entire family was “thrilled and happy”.

“A friend of mine in the United States gave us the message at 4am and we have been up since then,” Sarala Gopalan told news channel CNN-News18.

“She is a person who never forgets her roots and believes in family values,” she told the Deccan Herald newspaper.

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“Even today, she calls me chithi, and she has always been a caring person,” she said, using the Tamil word for a mother’s younger sister.

And since Harris’ mother is no longer alive, “we will always be available for Kamala and Maya”.

Sarala Gopalan called Harris an “ambitious girl” with a “fighting spirit” who knew what she wanted to achieve.

“She is not scared of anything and will fight for everything she aims to achieve,” Sarala told the Indian website Rediff.com in 2016, soon after Harris won the Senate seat for California. But Harris would “not stop there”, she said.

Harris, now 55, was the first woman of South Asian heritage elected to the Senate and was California’s first Black attorney general, as well as being the first woman to hold the post.

The South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), a US-based non-profit organisation, called Harris’ nomination “historic” but cautioned against focusing only on her ethnic background.

“As exciting as it is to have an Asian-American in this role, identity alone doesn’t guarantee a candidate has taken or will take actions that support and uplift South Asian communities alongside other Black and brown communities in the US,” said Lakshmi Sridaran, SAALT’s executive director.

WHAT ABOUT HER POLICIES?

Already, Biden has criticised Delhi’s changes to its citizenship laws last year, which make it harder for Muslim refugees from neighbouring countries to gain Indian citizenship while fast-tracking refugees of other religions.

Harris, in the same vein, has opposed India’s actions in Jammu & Kashmir, saying she would keep a close eye on the situation and wanted to “remind the Kashmiris that they are not alone”.

“There is a need to intervene if the situation demands. It comes under American values to raise the issue of human rights,” she said last September.

Harris had also criticised a decision by Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar to cancel his meeting with a US Congressional panel because member Pramila Jayapal had moved a resolution asking India to lift the blockade.

Harris said she stood with Jayapal and that it was “wrong for any foreign government” to dictate the participation of members in meetings on Capitol Hill.

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Sridaran from SAALT said Harris would be judged for her response on such issues.

“It is critical for South Asians in the US to assess whether the campaign has taken a clear stance against harmful policies and actions in the subcontinent that impact the diaspora here, such as the violence of Hindu nationalism,” she said.

Former Indian ambassador Rajiv Bhatia said that a Democratic win in November would have an impact on ties.

New Delhi should not expect undue concessions as Harris “is American, she is not Indian”, but her ascent to the VP’s seat would still “make a difference”.

“Her Indian origin will mean we will have, in the high echelons, somebody who fully understands India’s culture and what drives India,” he said.

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Last year, the Indian-American community and supporters of Modi invited Trump to an event titled “Howdy Modi”, which was seen as an attempt to help the president gain popularity with the 4 million-strong diaspora.

A former diplomat in New Delhi, who served in Washington, said such events had created a perception of “closeness”.

“So, yes, it is a worry that a new presidency, shaped by a known critic of the Modi administration, might emerge,” the envoy said. “Amid that, the perception that we are close to the Trump administration will not help.”

THE CHINA FACTOR

Last month, the US ordered the Chinese government to shut its Houston consulate, which triggered a tit-for-tat by Beijing, which shut the US consulate in Chengdu.

Harris, in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations last year, called China’s human rights record “abysmal” and said she would seek a global consensus on “confronting China” on the issue of “troubling trade practices”.

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However, Bhatia, the former ambassador, said greater clarity was needed on her position towards China. “We need to see whether there is a consensus in the US [across party lines] that China is the chief adversary.”

Such an agreement would shape Washington’s ties with Delhi, Bhatia said.

“No matter what Washington’s policies are in the new presidency, the key players in Asia will remain China, Russia and India,” he said.