Kamala Harris’s activist genes from Indian freedom fighter, civil servant

When she was just 5, Kamala Harris was in a bungalow surrounded by greenery in Lusaka in Zambia. The house belonged to her maternal grandfather, an Indian civil servant, PV Gopalan. He was a civil servant in post-colonial India dispatched to Zambia to manage an influx of refugees from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and had just declared independence from Britain.

Gopalan had joined the Indian Civil Services at the cusp of the end of British rule in India in the 1930s. He had joined in straight out of college. He was also a freedom fighter in India’s struggle for independence.

“My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India. 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,” said Harris in an interview with CNN.

He would also tell her stories about Indiana freedom fighters on their long walks. Harris inherited civic-mindedness and a sense of public service from her grandfather.

Even as a Vice President, Harris had visited her grandfather’s house in Zambia and shared how she cherished each memory in that home.

HARRIS’S GRANDFATHER IS HER FAVOURITE PERSON IN THE WORLD

What started was a life-defining relationship for Kamala Harris until his death in 1998. Harris and Gopalan wrote letters to each other from miles away. He was her guiding light in every sense. PV Gopalan was caring, full of life, and devoted to serving the public.

Harris would become his successor in all these values.

“My grandfather was really one of my favourite people in my world,” said Harris, as California’s junior senator.

She also shared a picture of her grandparents on Grandparents’ day. She shared that her grandfather was a freedom-fighter and her grandmother travelled across India to talk to women about birth control.

“My grandparents were phenomenal. My grandfather fought for and was a defender of the freedom of India, while my grandmother traveled across India—bullhorn in hand—to talk to women about accessing birth control. Their passion and commitment to improving our future led me to where I am today,” Harris wrote in a Facebook post from 2020.

PROGRESSIVE, SUPPORTIVE FATHER AND A MAN OF VALUES

In her Presidential campaign, Harris has often thanked her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, for her contributions in Harris’ life.

Gopalan was a breast cancer researcher with a firm resolve. She taught both her daughters, Kamala and Maya, to settle for nothing less than excellence and to work for others.

Shyamala learnt these principles from her father and mother, Rajam.

In 1958, Shyamala applied to UC Berkeley’s masters programme at the age of 19. Everything about this will define the generations to come.

Shyamala had the imagination and resolve to think of studying abroad. Her parents, in turn, did not stop her at a time when only few women were going for a masters programme, even in India.

None of their children had ever been outside India. But the parents were ready to send the kids to the US with their retirement funds to pay for the first year of fees.

“It was a big deal,” Harris’ uncle G. Balachandran told The Los Angeles Times, a 79-year-old academic living in India.

“At that time, the number of unmarried Indian women who had gone to the States for graduate studies — it was probably in the low double digits. But my father was quite open. He said, ‘If you get admission, you go.’”

This might be a regular immigrant tale of now. But back then it was unheard of.

“Shyamala was quite definitely influenced by my father, and she in turn had a great influence on Kamala,” said Balachandran.

ALL FAMILY MEMBERS TOOK THE ROAD NOT TAKEN IN THE GOPALAN FAMILY

All four of Gopalan’s children took the road not taken.

Balachandran earned a PhD in economics and computer science from the University of Wisconsin. He is a prominent academic in India. Sarala, is a retired obstetrician who lives in Chennai. Mahalakshmi is an information scientist who worked for the government in Ontario, Canada.

“Not one of them was traditional,” said Harris in an interview.

For Kamala Harris, she would realize later how progressive her family was for the context she was brought up in.

“When you’re raised in a family, I guess later in life you realize how your family might be different,” she said. “But it all seemed very normal to me. â€æ I obviously did realize as an adult, and as I got older, that they were extremely progressive.”

Gopalan was born in a village near Chennai. His marriage to Rajam was arranged. He had started as a stenographer climbing gradually to civil service.

The children studied hard but did not forget to be mischievous.

In their times in Bombay when Gopalan was posted as a senior commercial officer, the kids were given rules– to send away businessmen who gave bribes or strangers who wanted to enter their homes.

Finally, Shyamala and Balachandran took a call. They accepted fruits and sweets and sent everything else away.

PERMISSIVE BUT WANTED KIDS TO REALLY EXCEL IN THEIR LIFE

Shyamala had studied home science at Lady Irwin College, one of the top women’s colleges in India. She studied nutrition and textiles.

Her father would even ask her, “what is home science?”

“Are you learning to invite guests?” he asked.

“My grandparents had really high expectations of their kids and were nurturing,” said Balachandran’s daughter, Sharada Balachandran Orihuela, a Professor of English at the University of Maryland.

“I do think now of just how permissive they were in allowing their daughters to leave them, but also of how bold the daughters were wanting to leave to begin with,” she said. “And that Shyamala was the oldest, she really set the stage for the rest of the siblings to follow in her path.”

Shyamala went to study for a masters programme and then a PhD at a time when people could not make phone calls.

‘MY GRANDFATHER DEFENDED CIVIL RIGHTS AND EQUALITY’

In the US, Shyamala joined the black civil rights movement and here he met a Jamaican economic student –Donald Harris. She married him and had two daughters with him.

Even then they did not mind her choosing her own partner. That no one from the family attended the wedding was because they wanted to save whatever money they had.

Five years later, Shyamala and Donald came to Zambia when Harris was 4 years old and Maya was two years younger.

Surrounding her was a government issued car taking Gopalan to meetings with Zambian diplomats.

Harris does not recall this part of Zambia. She remembers the soil more fondly.

Even after Shyamala’s divorce and Gopalan’s retirement. Harris visited her maternal grandparents in Chennai in India in the 1970s.

Harris still accompanied her grandfather on his walks with his retired friends. Here, she heard the debates about democracy and corruption.

“My grandfather felt very strongly about the importance of defending civil rights and fighting for equality and integrity,” Harris said. “I just remember them always talking about the people who were corrupt versus the people who were real servants.”

Harris wore saris at the family festivities. She even learnt a few Tamil words.

BEING INDIAN, BEING BLACK: RACISM AND SHYAMALA GOPALAN

Shyamala had ensured that the girls retain some links with India.

“I don’t think she felt conflicted about it. She told the girls, ‘You are Indian; you are black. You don’t have to prove that you’re one or the other,” said Balachandran Orihuela, 36.

But this is not a story which came without discrimination or racism.

Shyamala was overlooked for promotions she deserved and even called unintelligent. But she kept doing her work relentlessly.

Balachandran Orihuela and Shyamala lived together during the 9/11 attacks. Shyamala had warned her about being called exotic.

“The minute they call you exotic, you walk away from them and tell them to f— off,” Balachandran Orihuela recalled. If anyone asked where she was from, Shyamala admonished her to answer: “None of your business.”

Shyamala died in 2009 of colon cancer. She was 70. Rajam too died in the same year.

In the arching of Harris’ eyebrows, Balachandran Orihuela sees her aunt, Shyamala.

FAMILY REUNITED IN 1990s IN PV GOPALAN’S LAST DAYS

Harris still remembers fondly when her whole family gathered together in 1991 to celebrate Gopalan’s 80th. All of them stayed under the same roof during this trip.

Rajam even asked all the four generations not to go out together to save themselves from the evil eye.

Harris’ heart had smiled on that day, looking at her family.

Her mother, aunts and uncle had suddenly become kids. Finally, some argument between two of their strongest– Shyamala and Rajam.

“It was just a whole scene,” Harris discussed, “and by the end of it we went to a hotel.”

In the second month of 1998, Harris was appointed assistant district attorney in San Francisco. This year, she travelled to India to meet her guiding light, her grandfather, 86.

Two weeks later, he died.

But his memories and value remain ingrained in Harris and the Gopalan family.

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