Indians in the southern state of Tamil Nadu have erected banners and are holding special prayers for US vice presidential hopeful Kamala Harris.
Villagers have been putting up banners of Ms Harris in Painganadu, the ancestral village in eastern Tamil Nadu where Ms Harris' mother has family links.
“They (Kamala Harris) have gone to the level of contesting for a vice-presidential candidate in America. Naturally, the villagers are very happy,” Ramanan, a trustee at a local temple, told Reuters Television.
Ms Harris, born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father who both immigrated to the United States to study, made history last week when US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden picked her as his vice president.
Ramanan, who goes by only one name, said Ms Harris’ maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan, a former high-ranking Indian government official, donated funds to the temple when he visited.
On annual trips to India as a child, Ms Harris would go for strolls with her maternal grandfather and his friends. In a speech in 2018, Senator Harris recalled those early visits to her grandparents in India.
Further south, in Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram town, priests held special rituals and prayed for Ms Harris’ victory.
“Kamala Harris - she is of Indian descent, she should win the election and also should be in favour of India,” said Ananthapadmanaba Sharma, a priest at the Ramanathaswamy temple.
“We will do all kinds of worship and the Lord will answer our prayers for her victory,” Mr Sharma said.
Kamala Harris was the first black female Attorney-General of California, then the first woman of South Asian heritage elected to the US Senate.
Now, after being tapped by Mr Biden, she is the first woman of colour chosen for a major party's presidential ticket.
Kamala Harris as San Francisco District Attorney in 2004. Source: AP
Ms Harris' selection has drawn huge amounts of support, particularly among Indian Americans.
"Today, just now, the American-born daughter of an Indian immigrant was named the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket," one reporter wrote recently on Twitter.
"And I, as the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants, can’t stop thinking of my father telling me: hard work makes anything possible.”
"Living in the US for 20 years, I never thought I would see an Indian American on a Presidential ticket," tweeted another.
