Far off From India, Kamala Harris Helps Reveal Another Face of the Nation

India is overwhelmed to see Kamala Harris being elected the Vice President of the United States of America, the nation already set to shift from Trump administration to Biden governance. Well, it’s not the possibility of India-US strengthened relationships that is making our country feel proud to have Harris on board. It is rather the forgotten Tamil Nadu connection that the NRI shares with the nation.

Born on October 20, 1964, to Indian-origin biologist Shyamala Gopalan and British Jamaican professor Donald J. Harris, the US Vice President-elect 2020 called herself a “Black” woman during her official acceptance speech and unveiled her childhood trips to India. The very mention of her being Indian was enough to ignite the sense of patriotism of not only the Tamilians alone but the entire country altogether.

In a nation like India where every girl and every girl’s parents are bound to remain well-informed that post-marriage, a daughter belongs to her husband and the children born out of their bond are known by their father’s surname, things have suddenly changed. A daughter born to an Indian mom has been widely and happily accepted as an INDIAN.

Well, it suddenly reminds me of a recent incident where famous Carnatic singer Sudha Ragunathan was highly trolled on different social media platforms for her daughter Maalavika, a doctor in the United States chose an African American Michael Murphy as her life partner. The people on different social networking sites showed a wave of anger as they had a very important question haunting them. How can a Brahmin girl fall in love with a Christian?

The success of Harris, a granddaughter to India who is now a US citizen, is being rejoiced while another granddaughter who was all set to start her new life with a partner she found suitable for herself was criticized for she was not supposed to marry an African American. And it didn’t stop there. The social media users demanded to boycott Sudha Ragunathan’s concerts in Chennai and also opined to not allow her to perform in the Marghazhi Season this winter.

Meanwhile, the Indian media is busy exploring Biden’s connection with India too, which the to-be-inaugurated President of the US talked about while serving as the VP under the Obama administration. He, in the past, mentioned about his “great, great, great, great, great grandfather George Biden,” who was the captain of the East India Company and who tied the knot with an Indian and settled here post-marriage.