Nearly three months since the US election, Kamala Harris will soon make history as the first woman to be sworn in as Vice-President. As the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris has made much of her historic background. And not always without controversy – the recent ‘fweedom’ gaffe being a case in point.
So who’s who in the new Vice President’s family?
The inspiration – PV Gopalan (1911 – 1998), Harris’s grandfather
Born into a Brahmin family in Tamil Nadu, Painganadu Venkataraman Gopalan joined the Indian civil service during the final decades of British rule. After independence, he specialised in the resettlement of refugees, eventually being stationed in Zambia to help with the flow of people fleeing neighbouring Rhodesia. Harris, who visited her grandfather in Zambia as a child, has spoken fondly about him as her ‘favourite person’, with the two exchanging letters during the early years of her career. He plays a central role in her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold.
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