How Kamala Harris’ Indian relatives helped shape her views on civil rights and civic duty
4 years, 4 months ago

How Kamala Harris’ Indian relatives helped shape her views on civil rights and civic duty

CNN  

New Delhi CNN — In 1958, Shyamala Gopalan arrived in Berkeley, California, after traveling thousands of miles from her family to pursue a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology. “From almost the moment she arrived from India, she chose and was welcomed to the Black community,” Harris wrote of her mother in her 2019 autobiography, “The Truths We Hold.” “In a country where she had no family, they were her family – and she was theirs.” Gopalan and Donald Harris divorced when the children were young, but she would continue to be active in the civil rights movement. “He would take walks every morning along the beach with his buddies who were all retired government officials and they would talk about politics, about how corruption must be fought and about justice,” Harris said. “They would laugh and voice opinions and argue, and those conversations, even more than their actions, had such a strong influence on me in terms of learning to be responsible, to be honest, and to have integrity.” Harris said her grandfather was one of the “original independence fighters in India,” but her uncle downplayed P.V.’s role in India’s fight against the British. Once Biden said he was going to nominate a woman, Balachandran thought it was “very, very likely” it would be Harris based on her experience and background Balachandran said he and Harris don’t speak that often, in large part due the distance and the demands of being a high-ranking US politician.

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