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In the village of Thulasendrapuram in Tamil Nadu state, once home to Harris’s maternal grandfather, PV Gopalan, celebrations erupted with locals lighting firecrackers, praying at their main temple and waving signs bearing the 56-year-old’s face.
The women of the village made a rangoli, a colorful work of folk art drawn on the ground, with the words: “Congratulations to Kamala Harris.”
“It is a matter of pride for all women,” housewife Arul Mozhi Sudhakar told AFP.
Harris’s uncle, academic Balachandran Gopalan, said he always knew she would be successful.
READ: Ramaphosa congratulates Biden and Harris on electoral victory
“I’m relieved, because I knew she was going to win, and I told her yesterday … my tension is gone,” he told WION TV in the capital New Delhi.
Gopalan told AFP on Friday that Harris’s family in India would travel to the United States to attend his inauguration.
“We were together as a family when she was sworn in as Senator. And now we will all be together during her swearing in as Vice President of the United States. It’s a great moment for us,” he said.
In Delhi, people applauded the Indian origins of the Harris family. Yash Iyer, 25, told AFP that “it is a proud moment for us also as indigenous people, since she has her roots here.”
“The fact that Kamala Harris is the vice president of the United States is a monumental achievement not only for the United States and India, but also for women around the world,” Smitashree Mishra, who works in international health and health, told AFP. development in the capital.
READ: Kamala Harris: America’s First Woman Vice President
“What I take away from this victory is a ray of hope, the hope to stand firm in a society that constantly judges you on archaic notions of gender, race and ethnicity … I am proud as a woman to see another woman represent our perspective. in the politics of the most powerful country in the world. “
Early Sunday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Biden on his victory in the White House and called Harris a source of “immense pride.”
“His success is groundbreaking and a source of immense pride not only for his Chittis, but also for all Indian Americans,” Modi wrote.
“Chitti” is a Tamil term of endearment for the younger sisters of one’s mother, which Harris used in his acceptance of the Democratic vice presidential nomination.
