Why India Wants to Claim Kamala
Birth matters above all for many Indians, but the Democratic vice presidential candidate is defined more by her choices than her ancestry.
Harris is 100% American.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
For very different reasons, both Indians and U.S. conservatives are emphasizing Sen. Kamala Harris’s Indian heritage. This shouldn’t be entirely surprising. Indians have always been quick to appropriate successful members of their diaspora. And right-wing commentators and even U.S. President Donald Trump are seeking to spread suspicions about the Democratic vice presidential candidate’s citizenship by emphasizing her mother’s Indian background and father’s Jamaican heritage. In reality, though, Harris is the very definition of American.
Indian society still largely believes that identity is determined more by one’s birth and family than by individual choices and actions. Especially for the very large conservative faction in India, caste and religion are assigned at birth, never to be altered. One cannot technically convert to Hinduism. And the caste system, maintained by marriage, ensures very little social mobility. In India, the birth lottery is everything.