Golden State Today

Vice President Kamala Harris’ has a history of downplaying her Indian heritage, even omitting it from her U.S. Senate biography, but it is that heritage, and her Indian immigrant mother, that had the most lasting influence on her life.

Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a native of Chennai India whose father was a “Brahmin,” the highest caste in India. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1958 to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

It was there that Gopalan met Donald J. Harris, the man who eventually would be her husband, and Kamala’s father.

The family “relocated to the Midwest” in the late 60s, reported People, as Kamala’s father became an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1966 to 1967, then at Northwestern University from 1967 to 1968, and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an associate professor in 1968. 

Donald and Shyamala divorced shortly thereafter, in 1972, when Kamala was only seven years old. Kamala’s mother, “took on the primary responsibility of raising their children — and became the most influential person in Kamala’s life.”

Shyamala died of colon cancer in 2009. After she was elected vice president in 2020, Kamala thanked her mother, crediting Shyamala with her success in her victory speech.

Kamala “rarely says much about Donald Harris,” reported the National Post in January 2021.

“He (Donald) has lamented that biased California courts gave full custody of his daughters to their mother,” reported the National Post, “Another family member has said ‘he was not around after the divorce.’”

Raised in Montreal

Kamala spent her formative teenage years in Montreal, Quebec, after her mother took a job at McGill University.

“Harris lived in Montreal during the 1970s and 1980s while attending Westmount High School,” reported Daily Hive Canada. “Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a teacher at McGill University at that time.”

The Daily Hive reported that Harris in 2021 discussed her Canadian years during a discussion with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“I spent many of my teenage years living in Montreal when my mother was teaching at McGill University… I have fond memories of my time in Montreal,” she told Trudeau. 

Kamala’s Indian, Jamaican, and Irish Ancestry

Despite being raised by her mother, who died in 2009, Harris has deemphasized her Indian heritage while highlighting her “African American” heritage, though her father was of Jamaican and, according to him, Irish, descent. 

Born in 1938 in Jamaica, Donald was a “descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town,” he wrote in an 2019 essay in Jamaica Global Online. Brown would’ve been of Irish descent. 

Kamala’s grandfather on her mother’s side was high-ranking Indiana diplomat P.V. Gopalan, reported the Los Angeles Times, who was “a Brahmin, part of a privileged elite in Hinduism’s ancient caste hierarchy.”

“Until his death in 1998, Gopalan remained from thousands of miles away a pen pal and guiding influence — accomplished, civic-minded, doting, playful — who helped kindle Harris’ interest in public service.”

“My grandfather was really one of my favorite people in my world,” said Harris.

Harris’ uncle, G. Balachandran, of New Dehli, India, said Harris’ mother was “quite definitely influenced” by Gopalan, who “in turn had a great influence on Kamala.”

After her parents divorced, Kamala and her sister visited India often with their mother.

“Harris wore saris for family events and spoke a few Tamil phrases with her relatives,” reported the Times. “Shyamala was determined that the girls retain links to India.”

Harris, however, hasn’t always highlighted her Indian ancestry, highlighting, instead, her “African American” heritage.

The archived biography page from her U.S. Senate website had no mention of her Indian ancestry, saying, “Kamala D. Harris is the first African American and first woman to serve as Attorney General of California and the second African American woman to be elected to the United States Senate in history.”

Today, her vice presidential bio page does say that she was “the first South Asian American to be elected to this position.”

Harris’ downplaying of her Indian background wasn’t always the case, as journalist Lee Fang wrote, “In her first bid for office, Harris leaned into her Indian background.”

“She introduced herself to the local press as ‘Kamala Devi Harris,’ using her full name,” wrote Fang. 

"In terms of Indian culture, my name represents the beautiful lotus flower," she said at one of her first campaign events. "I grew up with a strong Indian culture," she told Asian Week in 2003. 

“By the time she ran for the presidency in 2019, the mention of her Indian background had been removed from her campaign,” wrote Fang. “An archive of her website shows that her biography listed her as the ‘second African American woman in history to be elected to the U.S. Senate.’” 

“There was no hint of her South Asian lineage,” Fang wrote.

Indian news site Editorji even reported on speculation of whether Harris would wear a formal suit or the traditional Indian saree at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration. 

Harris wore a formal suit.

Judge Joe Brown: ‘She Ain’t Black’

Joe Brown, a former Memphis, Tenn. prosecutor, judge, and star of the television show, “Judge Joe Brown,” told former NBA player Kwame Brown on the latter’s YouTube channel that he had previously met Kamala’s father.

“I actually met her father in Jamaica,” said Brown. “I was the guest at the Governor-General's table, and he was a professor.” 

“He admittedly has some Irish in him,” said Brown. 

Brown, the first African American prosecutor in Memphis, said of Kamala that, “she ain’t black.”

“Mom was a Hindu, not a black woman,” said Brown. “So her mother is listed on a birth certificate as Caucasian, even though she's dark. But she's a Hindu Brahmin Tamil caste.”

“Now, interestingly, do you know what the anthropological name is for what Kamala Harris and her parents are?” asked Brown. “Indo-Aryan. They are the original Aryans.”

The Aryans were a group of Indo-European-speaking people who migrated into the Indian subcontinent around 1500 BCE. They are believed to have come from the regions around Central Asia and Iran. The arrival of the Aryans is associated with the end of the Indus Valley Civilization and the beginning of the Vedic Age in India. The Aryans introduced the Sanskrit language and composed the Vedas, which are the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Their social structure laid the foundations for the later development of the caste system in India.

Joe Brown also told Kwame that Kamala Harris has “two Jewish children she adopted, and married a Jewish husband whose got an interesting reputation.”

Kamal’s husband, Doug Emhoff, was born on October 13, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York. He is an entertainment lawyer who graduated from California State University, Northridge, and earned his law degree from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. 

Emhoff has two children from his previous marriage. He has worked at several prominent law firms, including DLA Piper, where he specialized in intellectual property and litigation.

Kamala’s Ascent to Presidential Candidate

Kamala began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office before serving as the District Attorney of San Francisco. She was then elected as the Attorney General of California, serving from 2011 to 2017. 

In 2017, she became a U.S. Senator from California and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. presidency in the 2020 Democratic Primary, dropping out of the race in December 2019.

On August 11, 2020, Biden selected her as his running mate, and she became the Vice President of the United States on January 20, 2021. 

Biden announced, via X, his intention to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, endorsing Harris to run in his place.

If elected, she would be the first Indian-American person to hold the office.