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The California senator, daughter of an Indian-born mother explains the meaning of her Indian name. "It means 'lotus flower', which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2020-53745141

Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris separated when Ms Harris was five. Raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, a cancer researcher and a civil rights activist, Kamala, Maya and Shyamala were known as 'Shyamala and the girls'.

When she ran for a senate seat in 2015, the Economist magazine described her as the "daughter of an Indian cancer researcher and a Jamaican economics professor, she is the first woman, first African-American and first Asian attorney general of California".

In a video with Indian-American comedian and actress Mindy Kaling, posted to the senator's Youtube page during Ms Harris's presidential run, the two cook Indian food together and chat about their shared south Indian background.

Kaling says that while not everyone knows about that half of Ms Harris's heritage, other Indian-Americans she meets often bring up the fact. "It's like our thing we're so excited about, to have you running for president," says Kaling.

Kaling asks Ms Harris whether she was raised eating south Indian food.
Ms Harris reels off names of Indian dishes made at home: "Lots of rice and yogurt, potato curry, dal, lots of dal, idli".

When Ms Harris got married to Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer, in 2014, "in keeping with [our] respective Indian and Jewish heritage", she put a flower garland around her new husband's neck and he stomped on a glass.

But Indian-Americans also view her as one of their own, her candidacy suggesting a potential wider recognition of the Indian and South Asian communities in the country.

her late mother was a big inspiration for Ms Harris. Gopalan was born in Chennai, the oldest of four children. She graduated from University of Delhi at age of 19, applied to a graduate programme at Berkeley, "a university she'd never seen, in a country she'd never visited".

@KamalaHarris grandfather, PV Gopalan, was a senior diplomat in the Indian government who lived in Zambia after it gained independence, and he helped settle refugees.

In her book, she doesn't say too much about her trips to India.
But she writes she is close to her mother's brother and two sisters, with whom she kept in touch through long distance calls and letters and periodic trips. Ms Harris's mother died in 2009, at age 70.

US Democratic Party activists like Shekar Narasimhan says her candidacy would be "seismic" for the Indian-American community. "She's a woman, she biracial, she will help win the election for Biden, she appeals to various communities and she's really smart."

"Why should Indian-Americans not be proud of her? It's a signal that we are coming of age."

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