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“We will wait until he is president:” Harris ancestral villagers have only one wish
NEW DELHI: For three days in a row Arulamozli Sudhakar has been busy making colorful rangoli designs on the floor outside her home, interspersed with words of congratulations to US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“We want Harris to visit the village when he becomes president of the United States,” Sudhakar, 31, a local councilor, told Arab News.
Her friend, S. Vijyarani, agreed. “I’m sure Kamala Harris will become the president of America, and then we would like him to come to the village and meet us,” Vijayarani told Arab News.
The village of Thulasenthirapuram, in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India, has become the center of attention since Saturday.
“Kamala Harris is one of us, and her achievement fills us with immense pride and a sense of fulfillment,” said Sudhakar.
Harris, who is half Jamaican, traces her Indian roots back to the village, located about 350 km from the state capital, Chennai.
It is where his grandfather, PV Gopalan, was born and raised before moving to New Delhi to work with the Indian government in the 1950s.
“It’s party time for us. We are still a week away from the Deepawali festival, but for us the celebrations started early. This is a very special time for us, “Sudhakar said, speaking of the Hindu festival where people decorate their homes with lanterns or diyas to ward off evil.
Thulasenthirapuram, with only 3,000 people, had never been very interested in American politics before this year.
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The villagers are throwing a big party when Kamala Harris is sworn in. It will be a great party.
“We were looking closely at the count in the United States. The first day of the count disappointed us. However, when we started counting the ballots in the mail, our hopes rose, ”said Jayaram Sudhakar, a local civil society activist.
He told Arab News “the villagers are throwing a big party when Kamala Harris is sworn in. It will be a great party “.
Although Harris’s Indian family leaves for opportunities elsewhere, Chennai’s maternal aunt, Dr. Sarala Gopalan, regularly visits the local temple.
“A few years ago, Kamala Harris also donated 5,000 rupees ($ 70) to the local temple through her aunt. His name is prominently displayed on the temple wall, ”Jayaram said.
Local priest S. Ramanan said it doesn’t matter “whether Kamala Harris lives in the village or not. The villagers feel connected and inspired by his roots in the area. “
Outside of Thulasenthirapuram, Indians from other parts of the country also reacted to Harris’ victory.
Women’s rights and politics activist Kavita Krishnan said she sees “immense political significance” in the defeat of President Donald Trump.
“It gives us hope that through the proper mobilization of the working class and youth we can defeat the majority forces that have taken control of the nation,” Krishnan told Arab News.
Yashi Raj of the University of Delhi said: “I don’t want to see Harris through the prism of a woman and an Indian; for me it stands out because it opposed the wrong, spoke out against the marginalization of minorities and the repressed “.
A debate that dominates a section of the media and the intelligentsia, however, is how the result of the victory in the United States could affect the right-wing Hindu ecosystem in India.
“For India’s right-wing ecosystem, and especially Hindu fundamentalists, Trump’s defeat is nothing short of a shock,” Gowhar Geelani, a Kashmiri author and analyst, told Arab News.
“It will not be easy for them to get away with Islamophobia, demonization and caricature of Muslims in India and Kashmir,” added the political commentator from Srinagar.
Before being elected, both incoming president Joe Biden and his vice president Harris had expressed concerns about Kashmir’s political marginalization and violence against Indian Muslims in other parts of the country.
“While the political class, civil society and human rights actors in Jammu and Kashmir are delighted that Biden and Harris are now at the helm of business in the United States, expectations about immediate relief and conflict resolution are premature,” Geelani said.
He added that the Democrats’ victory “would offer some hope” for Kashmir.
“It meant some joy for the people in Kashmir after 15 months of mental and digital siege,” he said.
Delhi political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay agreed and added that there was “a sense of dismay” among the right-wing forces in power.
“I feel some dismay at the result among the right-wing forces,” Mukhopadhyay, who wrote a biography on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, told Arab News.
“They fear that a strong anti-polarizing discourse in the United States would eventually lead to an eclipse of the large number of populist leaders, including Modi. There are concerns that it could influence Indian politics, “Mukhopadhyay said.
Dr Hilal Ahmed of the New Delhi-based think-tank Center for the Study of Developing Societies said that “the Democrats’ election victory is significant in a way that would force ultra-nationalists around the world to reshape their political rhetoric. “
However, a ruling leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) called the confrontation unlikely.
“Narendra Modi came to Delhi driven by the power of hope. It represents people’s aspirations. Its continued popularity shows that people do not see it from the prism of ideology or religion, but from the prism of hope, ”BJP youth leader Pappu Nirala told Arab News.
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