In the village of the parents of Usha Vance, wife of US senator and Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, in the West Godavari district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, November 6, 2024. IDREES MOHAMMED / AFP Indian and foreign media flocked to Thulasendrapuram in the hope of gathering reactions from residents. The modest village in Tamil Nadu, in southern India, is nothing exceptional, but it was here that Kamala Harris’ maternal grandfather, P. V. Gopalan, was born more than a century ago , before moving to Chennai (Madras), the state capital, where he was a senior official in the regional government. Kamala Harris, whose first name means “lotus flower” in Sanskrit, never visited it and there is no trace of the family past, but the village has the journalistic merit of symbolizing the roots of the American Democratic candidate. Despite the prayers of the inhabitants of Thulasendrapuram, it is ultimately not a candidate with half-Indian, half-Jamaican origins, but a candidate with German roots who should enter the White House. Narendra Modi was quick to congratulate Donald Trump, his “friend”, for his “historic victory” in the American presidential election. The Prime Minister and the Republican know each other well and had, during Trump’s first term (2017-2021), displayed their complicity during their respective visits to India and the United States. The two populists notably performed, hand in hand, in Houston, in 2019, and in Ahmedabad, the following year. Trump scored points among Indian-Americans The Indian origins of Kamala Harris only played a marginal role in the American Indian community, with 5.2 million members, predominantly Hindu and traditionally favorable to the Democratic camp, although according to a study by the Carnegie Foundation on the attitudes of American Indians, carried out just before the vote, showing a breakthrough for the Republican candidate, particularly among men, sensitive to his image as a strong man, an entrepreneur, but also because of his promises to fight illegal immigration. For many American Indians who arrived legally on American soil, illegal immigration has become a major concern. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers “In the head of Narendra Modi”, extracts from the book: “To those who accuse him of weakening democracy, to his detractors, the Indian Prime Minister opposes a deafening silence” Read later According to the Carnegie Foundation, the number of Indian-Americans identifying as Democrats fell to 47%, down from 56% in 2020. Ms. Harris, despite her Indian heritage, received only 60% support from a community which had given nearly 70% of its votes to Mr. Biden four years ago. Trump, meanwhile, improved his support, from 22% to 31%. The survey found that fewer than one in ten Indian American supporters of Kamala Harris were motivated by her South Asian origins. You have 44.63% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Source link