Kamala Harris describes her Indian grandfather, P.V. Gopalan, as a progressive “independence fighter” against British rule, which ended shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War. Her claims are sparking angry recriminations in India, however, as he was actually a “diligent civil servant” who worked for the British Imperial Secretariat Service.
Harris has downplayed her Indian heritage in recent years, instead emphasizing the black identity she inherited from her father, a Jamaican Marxist of mixed African and European descent. Still, she shared a picture of herself in India for National Grandparents Day on Sunday, posing with her grandfather, whom she described as “a retired civil servant who had been part of the movement to win India’s independence.”
She has previously described Gopalan, a Tamil from the elite Brahmin caste, as “one of the original independence fighters in India.” The Indian press reports that the records suggest otherwise, with Harris’s grandfather working diligently for the British imperial regime. “Gopalan’s son, Kamala Harris’s uncle G. Balachandran, said that had his father openly advocated ending British rule, he could have been fired,” notes The Times of India.
Indian social media users were blunter, describing Harris’s account of her grandfather as “unadulterated BS. ”
“Kamala Harris’ grandfather, P.V. Gopalan was in British Imperial Secretariat Service in the 1930s, a role off-limits to anyone tied to the struggle against British rule,” wrote one, adding: “If anything, he aided colonial exploitation by serving the imperial bureaucracy.”
Harris’s Jamaican heritage is similarly murky, including not only Africans but also Hamilton Brown, a notorious 19th-century slaveowner who campaigned against abolition.
Agmark unadulterated BS.
Kamala Harris’ grandfather, P.V. Gopalan was in British Imperial Secretariat Service in the 1930s, a role off-limits to anyone tied to the struggle against British rule.
If anything, he aided colonial exploitation by serving the imperial bureaucracy. https://t.co/1QpwS3VqCW
— Indu Makkal Katchi (Offl) 🇮🇳 (@Indumakalktchi) September 9, 2024
.jpg){kind=link}
