Kamala Harris's Indian Background Was Once a More Prominent Part of Her Curated Image

I was looking through some online archives available through my university’s library, and noticed that there was a time in her political career that Kamala Harris talked a lot more about her Indian heritage.

For example, from 2009 (this was reprinted online in 2020): “One of the most influential people in my life, in addition to my mother, was my grandfather (TV 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 Madras.” I take it that she was exaggerating both his contribution to Indian independence and the post he held …

From a 2003 profile (similar to one available here):

A product of two cultures, Harris delights in her multiculturalism. Her grandfather was an Indian diplomat who served in posts in Delhi and Zambia, and an aunt, an obstetrician in Chandigarh, is so beloved by her patients that they often leave baskets of fruit on her doorstep after she delivers their babies. In the 1940′s, Harris told the San Francisco Examiner recently, her grandmother drove around India in a VW bug, urging village women through a bullhorn to use birth control. “Even though my grandma had an arranged marriage when she was 12, she and my grandfather were very open-minded people,” she said. [Though they were initially "not too happy" when her mother declined an arranged marriage and married a black man she had fallen in love with instead.]

By 2019, the Los Angeles Times reported: “She seldom delves into her Indian heritage, reflecting a broader reticence to share personal stories beyond a handful of well-worn anecdotes.”

I don’t think any of this is damning in any way, but it’s interesting to see how ambitious public figures curate their image over time. At some point in Harris’ political career, for example, she thought talking about her grandmother’s arranged marriage at age 12 and how that didn’t stop the grandmother from being an outspoken feminist was helpful, and at some point she decided it wasn’t.

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