Kamala Harris' Indian roots and why they matter

Kamala Harris/Instagram

Besides being the first Black woman on the ticket, Kamala Harris is also the first Indian American. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan was born in Chennai and immigrated to the US to attend a doctoral program at UC Berkeley. Like Barack Obama, a mixed-race heritage has allowed Harris to connect across identities and reach multiple audiences and voting blocs. 

To understand what today’s announcement means to this community, I turned to the best source I know on Indian Americans and politics: Aziz Haniffa. Haniffa was executive editor and chief political and diplomatic correspondent of India Abroad that shuttered just a few months ago after 50 years of publishing, under advertising and Covid-19 strains. 

He sent me an Aug. 26, 2009  — more than a decade ago  — interview he did with Harris and gave me permission to excerpt portions. It’s headlined, “Kamala Devi Harris: The ‘female Obama’ discusses her campaign for California's Attorney General.” 

The piece highlights the role of her Indian identity, sure to surface again in the coming months. Harris’ rise as the daughter of immigrants — one from Jamaica, one from India — serves a powerful counternarrative to President Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. 

Aziz Haniffa: What did your mom instill in you, in terms of culture and heritage?

Harris: My mother was very proud of her Indian heritage and taught us, me and my sister Maya, to share in the pride about our culture. We used to go back to India every couple of years. One of the most influential people in my life, in addition to my mother, was my grandfather T V Gopalan, who actually held a post in India that was like the Secretary of State position in this country. 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 retired and lived in Besant Nagar, in what was then called Madras. 

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. 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 in terms of learning to be responsible, to be honest, and to have integrity. When we think about it, India is the oldest democracy in the world – so that is part of my background, and without question has had a great deal of influence on what I do today and who I am.

AH: Would it be true to say then that the roots of your civil rights activism began with those walks on the beach with your grandfather, as much as in your parents’ involvement in the civil rights movement in the US during their student days at the University of California?

Harris: It is important to not say one thing to the exclusion of the other, because I don’t feel the need to do that. They are of equal weight in terms of who I am and the impact that they had on me growing up. My grandparents used to visit us in Berkeley all the time. My grandfather and grandmother enjoyed the time they spent with people of all walks of life who were involved in the civil rights movement. I believe that one of the benefits of having travelled the world and having known different cultures is that you really understand and see very clearly that people, whoever they are, whatever language they speak, have so much more in common than they do differences.

AH: Some Indian-American politicians like Bobby Jindal have, after winning election campaigns in which they sought and received the support of the community, sought to distance themselves from their Indian-American heritage. What is your view on how the ethnicity factor plays out?

Harris: I am proud to be who I am, I am proud of the influences that my family have had on my life, that my community had on my life, and similarly the influence of my mentors and colleagues and friends. One is not to the exclusion of the other – I believe that point is at the heart of this matter. We have to stop seeing issues and people through a plate-glass window as though we were one-dimensional. Instead, we have to see that most people exist through a prism and they are a sum of many factors — everyone is that way, and that is just the reality of it.

Sen. Kamala Harris speaks to reporters after announcing her candidacy for President of the United States, at Howard University, her alma mater, on January 21, 2019 in Washington, DC. Al Drago/Getty Images

Kamala Harris experienced the ultimate vetting during the presidential primary on her experience as a prosecutor in California. Democratic activists criticized her for being too tough as a prosecutor and not doing enough to reform California’s system.

Harris’s record is mixed. She did pursue reforms as attorney general, notably the “Back on Track” program that allowed first time offenders to avoid prison. But those reforms are not enough for some activists.

How does the Trump campaign view it? Well, take a look at the statement put out by Trump campaign adviser Katrina Pierson, that seems to suggest that *they* believe her record shows she was tough on crime. “Clearly, Phony Kamala will abandon her own morals, as well as try to bury her record as a prosecutor, in order to appease the anti-police extremists controlling the Democrat Party,” Pierson wrote.

Trump aides have long viewed Harris’s record as tough paint as extremist on crime. This statement suggests that they are going to rely on accusing Harris of having a change of heart, in order to paint her and Biden with the anti-law enforcement brush.

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin took to Instagram to share some tips for Kamala Harris.

Harris is now the third woman to serve as a vice presidential candidate for a major political party, following Geraldine Ferraro as the Democratic vice presidential pick in 1984 and Palin in 2008. Harris is the first Black woman to run on a major political party’s presidential ticket. 

Read Palin's advice:

Sen. Kamala Harris speaks at the National Forum on Wages and Working People: Creating an Economy That Works for All at Enclave on April 27, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Sen. Kamala Harris’ time has finally come. Covering her campaign so closely day in and day out, despite the missteps and miscalculations that often times come with running a first national campaign, the question always felt more “when,” and not “if” Harris would reach this level.

Despite her often low polling numbers and inability to garner massive Black support during the primary, people always wanted to hear from Harris. She could always command attention.

But the moment it was announced she would be leaving the race, it felt like a cosmic shift in attitude. Folks from all different strides of life who criticized her platform, they then voiced regret that she, the only Black woman to run for the 2020 Democratic nomination, would not be on the December 2019 debate stage.

When issues of race would come up, people on social media called out to say they wished Harris was still around to give her take. Many women described it to me as a rug being pulled from underneath them. And every contest that Harris was not in, many said her contributions were missed. 

As a Black woman who covered her campaign, the joy I see on Twitter and an innumerable number of sources calling my phone to express their views on the news, does not surprise me.

Regardless of the probability that Harris had to win the ticket, many Black women saw Harris as one of them. Someone who naturally understood their concerns and took great strides to describe them in detail on public stage. A whip smart sister who dedicated her life to achieving greatness, and striving against what felt like the impossible. Harris would often wax poetically about the challenges that she faced in her career, how when you break ceilings, sometimes you get cut.

But it’s what you do after that, that matters. And now as the first Black and Indian woman on a Democratic ticket, Harris has broken one of the ultimate ceilings in this country.

Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden wave after accepting the nomination during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on September 6, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tom Pennington/

Joe Biden talked extensively about his running mate search with many friends, including former President Barack Obama, who served as “a sounding board” over the last three months.

A person close to the vice presidential search tells CNN that Biden and Obama spoke regularly about the choices before him and the political moment facing the country.

The former president “did not put his thumb on the scale for any particular candidate,” the person close to the process said, “but mostly provided high-level counsel and was a sounding board as the vice president made his decision.” 

One of the reasons Obama selected Biden 12 years ago was that Biden had been tested on the national stage after twice running for president and being on the debate stage multiple times. It was that same quality that also contributed to Biden choosing Harris, given her experience as a presidential candidate in the 2020 primary.

A Biden friend said the former vice president took a deep look at nearly a dozen women in his search and Harris “always made sense to him.” It was a deliberate search, looking for a governing partner and a loyal teammate. 

Throughout the process, Biden talked often about the bruising nature of a presidential race, particularly the general election campaign ahead with President Trump, and he believed experience was critical.

That contributed to Biden beginning – and ending – his search with Harris. 

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the William Hicks Anderson Community Center, on July 28, in Wilmington, Delaware. Mark Makela/Getty Images

Just after reports poured in that former Vice President Joe Biden had chosen Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, the Trump campaign issued a statement attacking the pair.

“Not long ago, Kamala Harris called Joe Biden a racist and asked for an apology she never received,” the statement begins.

Facts First: Harris explicitly did not call Biden racist but she did criticize him during a debate last year for talking about working with two segregationist senators.

Harris confronted Biden during a June 2019 debate on his recent remarks when he brought up working with two segregationist senators as an example of how he could work with people he disagreed with.

"I do not believe you are a racist and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground,” Harris said during the debate, “but I also believe, and it's personal, and it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who (have) built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country."

Biden responded, saying it was “a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I do not praise racists. That is not true.”

Sources close to Joe Biden have long said that he was looking for a governing partner.

And while Kamala Harris is only a few years into her first term as US senator, one selling point on the experience front is her leadership as California’s attorney general.

Harris often said on the campaign trail that she led the second largest Department of Justice in the country, second only to the US Department of Justice. And as Biden looked at the range of experiences that would make a vice president ready to serve, that was one of them.

Watch more of CNN's Abby Phillip's analysis on Biden's historic pick:

Former Vice President Joe Biden personally informed Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Florida Rep. Val Demings that they had not been chosen, according to sources with knowledge of the calls.

Duckworth had interviewed with Biden last weekend.

Sen. Kamala Harris participates in a interview and question-and-answer session with leaders from historically black colleges and universities during a Thurgood Marshall College Fund event at the JW Marriott February 07, 2019 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Many Black women across the country breathed a collective sigh of relief, at the notion that Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden made history today by picking the first Black woman and Indian woman to join a democratic ticket. 

Sen. Kamala Harris name has been discussed as a top contender for vice president since before she even declared her own candidacy to run for the democratic nomination in January of 2019.

Multiple black women have told CNN that Harris’ selection is not just about herself, but providing a base for something for all women of color across the country to aspire to.

“For every black woman, for every black child that has been hidden in America, or who has worked behind the same scenes. For every woman that is changing the bedpan, for every woman that is standing in a grocery store, Harris becomes the embodiment of that. She becomes the embodiment of Asian America, she becomes the embodiment of Indian Americans, she becomes the embodiment of a black woman,” Moore added.

And they say, it is a slap down to any notion that ambitious women shouldn’t be accepted with open arms and encouraged to ascend to leadership roles in the country.