In Short
- Usha Vance has Indian roots and a notable family history
- Her granduncle was jailed during India’s Emergency period
- Her great-aunt is India’s oldest active professor at 96
Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance, has gained significant attention for her Indian roots. One of her close relatives was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker and was jailed during the Emergency in India.
“Usha is the granddaughter of Ramasastry, my husband Subramanya Sastry’s eldest brother. My husband spent two years in jail during the Emergency as he was an RSS worker,” Shanthamma Chilukuri, Usha’s great-aunt, told The Times of India.
The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had suspended rights and jailed opposition leaders and activists.
Her great-aunt Shanthamma, at 96, is India’s oldest active professor, travelling 60 km daily to teach physics at a university in Visakhapatnam.
Usha, 38, is the daughter of Indian immigrants who moved to the US in the late 1970s. She practices Hinduism and has an impressive academic background, having studied at Yale and Cambridge.
This story was originally published in indiatoday.in. Read the full story here.
