A poster hailing United States Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has been put up in her ancestral village in Tamil Nadu, wishing her victory in the presidential polls. Kamala’s niece Meena Harris tweeted the photo of the poster featuring her aunt that was put up in Painganadu in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu. She tweeted that she was sent the photo from the village that is the ancestral home of Kamala Harris' maternal side.
The poster with Kamala Harris' photo reads, "The people of Painganatu Thulasendrapuram wish Kamala Harris, PV Gopalan's granddaughter, victory in the US elections, where she's contesting for post of Vice President."
Taking to Twitter, Meena Harris went on to add that she knew her great-grandfather from their family trips to Chennai when she was young. She tweeted, "He was a big figure for my grandma and I know they're together somewhere smiling now."
I was sent this from Tamil Nadu where our Indian family is from. It says “PV Gopalan’s granddaughter is victorious.” I knew my great grandfather from our family trips to Chennai when I was young—he was a big figure for my grandma and I know they’re together somewhere smiling now. pic.twitter.com/WuZiKimmqj
— Meena Harris (@meenaharris) August 16, 2020
The small agrarian village of Painganadu, which is located near Mannargudi in Tiruvarur district in the Cauvery delta, first shot to fame when Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden announced that Kamala Harris was his vice-presidential candidate.
Kamala’s mother was Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian woman, cancer researcher and civil rights activist originally from Chennai and her father Donald Harris, an immigrant from Jamaica and a former economics professor at Stanford University.
Kamala Harris' mother Shyamala was born to Rajam from Thulasenthirapuram village and PV Gopalan from Painganadu. PV Gopalan was an activist during the Independence movement, who later became a high ranking civil servant thus always keeping him as a figure people talk about. Though they moved out of the village, Harris' ancestors always kept the ties between the family and the village temple alive by making regular donations. Reports from the temple trust say that donations were made in the name of the current California Senator Harris as late as 2014.
People of the Tamil Nadu village have been sharing photographs of the village, temple, her ancestral home, and plaque in the temple carrying information about the donations made by the family members on social media.
In an interview, Kamala said that she and her sister would go back to India every couple of years, and she has vivid memories of her grandfather. “My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, and some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he returned and lived in Besant Nagar,” she said in an interview.