Kamala Harris: Things you should know about this US Vice President named after a Hindu goddess
Ms Kamala Devi Harris made history in 2020 after she became the first female Vice President of the United States.
Ms Harris and her running mate Mr Joe Biden defeated Republican candidate Donald Trump in an exhilarating and gruelling race that went down to the wire.
Mr Biden went on to became the president for the next four years.
Ms Harris’ position then was truly historic, as not only was she the first woman to hold this office, she’s also the first African-American and South Asian American to do so.
Now, there’s a shot for the 59-year-old trailblazer to make further history.
On 22 July 2024, after weeks of political turmoil and intense pressure from within his own party, Mr Biden announced that he was dropping out of the Presidential race as the Democrat nominee for the upcoming presidential election.
In doing so, he endorsed Ms Harris as his successor.
Source: Joe Biden on X
At present, she is the front-runner to become the Democrat nominee, although she still has to win over everyone in her party.
That said, she has received significant backing from key Democratic figures, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton.
With all eyes on her now, public curiosity about Ms Harris will be at fever pitch.
Here are six facts about the Vice President and likely presidential candidate.
1. She’s named after a Hindu goddess
After many prominent US female politicians with typical anglophile names like “Hillary” (Clinton), “Elizabeth” (Warren) and “Nancy” (Pelosi), many would find Ms Harris’ first name “Kamala” to be rather unusual by American standards.
However, given that her mother is Indian (her father was from Jamaica), it seems quite logical that Ms Harris would have an Indian first name.
Source: The Hindu
In fact, her name was chosen by her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who was a cancer researcher.
“Kamala” means “lotus” in Sanskrit, according to Politico.
It’s also another name for Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of good fortune.
Source: Levitating Monkey
This deity is one of the most popular goddesses in Indian mythology, and symbolises wealth and purity.
She is also believed to dwell in places that amplify virtue and bravery, which if she takes on former President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, Ms Harris seems to embody very well.
2. Her grandpa was an Indian government official
Ms Harris is not the only one in the family who went into politics. In fact, we can say that politics runs in her blood.
Her grandfather P.V. Gopalan, was a high-ranking government official in India, according to the LA Times.
He was born in 1911 in Painganadu, a village in the state of Tamil Nadu that’s situated 290km south of Chennai, to a Brahmin family — considered the elites in Hinduism’s caste system.
Source: LA Times
Most of the men in this caste would take up careers in academia, government service or the priesthood, while the women were not expected to work.
After he joined the government service in the 1930s, the Indian Government sent him on assignment to Zambia to manage the large flow of refugees seeking asylum from Zimbabwe.
Mr Gopalan was quintessential in this role because Zimbabwe had just been freed from British rule at that time. Political stability was paramount, so the Indian government entrusted him with this crucial task.
Source: LA Times
In his 40-year career, that was to be Mr Gopalan’s most illustrious laurel.
Ms Harris said that her grandfather was one of her favourite people in the world. She also shared in her memoir “The Truths We Hold” that he had been part of India’s fight for independence.
3. She’s known to her kids as “Momala”
Ms Harris is married to Mr Doug Emhoff, who has two children, Cole and Ella, from his previous marriage.
They tied the knot in 2014, but Ms Harris was careful about how she would be perceived by her stepkids.
She described taking her time before meeting her stepchildren for the first time, and later agreed with them when they said they “didn’t like the term ‘stepmum'”.
“Instead they came up with the name ‘Momala’,” Ms Harris told ELLE magazine.
Source: ELLE
Cole was born in 1994 and works in the entertainment industry like his biological mother, Ms Kerstin Emhoff, according to TODAY. Ella is 25 and is a model and fashion designer.
She graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City in May 2021.
Source: ELLE
Their father Doug has a history as an entertainment lawyer and is the first second gentleman in American federal history.
4. She held a protest at age 13
It would’ve been best not to mess with Ms Kamala Harris’ playtime when she was growing up.
Source: LA Times
As she was displeased with the policy banning children from playing on the lawn in front of her apartment block in Montreal, Canada, she and her sister Maya held a protest right at that very site, according to the Mercury News.
Amazingly, the policy was overturned due to their demonstration.
The other amazing fact? Ms Harris was only 13 at the time.
One shouldn’t be surprised. According to Channel NewsAsia, Ms Harris grew up in Oakland, California, in an activist household that saw her attend her first rallies in a stroller.
Looks like she’s used to speaking her mind, which served her well during her debate with Vice-President Mike Pence.
5. She waved goodbye to poo to cope with stress
Law school was “brutal” for Ms Harris, who attended the University of California Hastings College in San Francisco from 1987 to 1989. Prior to that, she graduated from Howard University with a degree in political science and economics.
Source: UC Law San Francisco
She shared in an interview with Politico in 2018 that she had a very interesting, if unconventional way to deal with the stress and politics of college.
She helped her sister potty train her niece, and they would all wave goodbye to a piece of poo in the toilet at the end of the day.
Explaining the rationale, Ms Harris said:
It will put this place in perspective.
6. She has a flower named after her in Singapore
During Ms Harris’ first visit to Singapore in 2021, we bestowed an orchid in her name, the Papilionanda Kamala Harris.
Source: Tarini Parti on X
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) noted that it is an orchid hybrid, and it sports a purplish-pink hue.
We can consider Singapore’s practice of “orchid diplomacy” a special form of gift-giving. According to the National Parks Board, it “serves as a gesture of friendship to promote goodwill between Singapore and other countries”.
7. Her fan club is related to coconuts
Ms Harris has a fan club named the “KHive”, which made a resurgence as calls for 81-year-old Biden to step down from the presidential race grew louder earlier this month.
They are known for sharing coconut emojis, related to a speech where she shared something her mother used to say:
You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.
She had brought up the quote about the importance of equity in education policy. However, the viral quote is increasingly being used as a tongue-in-cheek rallying cry to support Harris, according to Forbes.
Fans even refer to themselves as “coconut-pilled” on social media.
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Featured image adapted from LAÂ Times and Bambridge Accountants.
