Joe Biden speculated that he might have had parents in colonial India.
Bombay:
Already proud of Kamala Harris’ ancestry, India has now started to dig potential local roots for US President-elect Joe Biden.
The next leader of the United States speculated that he could have had relatives in colonial India. Although there is no evidence, the name Biden has become a target of genealogical investigation across the country.
A plaque commemorating 19th-century British ship captain Christopher Biden has been a popular selfie spot in Chennai since the US election.
And a Biden family in western India says they have become “exhausted” from appeals since their namesake claimed their claim in the White House.
The American vote has been in the spotlight in India because Biden’s running mate is the daughter of a migrant from the state of Tamil Nadu.
Harris, 56, has made much of her Indian connections and the way she enjoys eating ‘idli with really good sambar’ – typical southern dishes.
Less attention was paid to Biden, who established Irish ties. But he touched on possible Indian relations during a trip to Mumbai in 2013 while he was vice president.
Biden said in a speech he received a letter from an Indian Biden after he became a senator in 1972, suggesting they may be related.
“One of the first letters I received and I regret never having followed up on it,” he said.
Mumbai Bidens is low
The letter said that “their mutual, large, large, large, something or other was working for the East India Trading Company in the 1700s”.
This sparked enthusiasm in Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu, which is also home to Harris Indian relatives.
A plaque at St George’s Cathedral in Chennai that celebrates Christopher Biden, born in 1789, suddenly became a local tourist draw.
“We have come to know the records of two Bidens – William Biden and Christopher Biden – who were brothers and became captains of the East India Company on merchant ships in the 19th century,” Bishop of Madras Reverend J. George Stephen, told AFP.
“While William Biden died at an early age, Christopher Biden became captain of several ships and eventually settled in Madras,” now known as Chennai.
Despite speculation, nothing has confirmed the Biden brothers are linked to the 77-year-old American.
If the president-elect has an Indian ancestor, Christopher is considered the most likely candidate, according to experts who have studied family records.
There are also Bidens in Mumbai and Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra who could be descendants of Christopher, one of eight children of a John Biden who could be the common link.
The media attention has been overwhelming, according to Maharashtra Bidens. Indian media has speculated that their late grandfather Leslie wrote to the American politician.
Rowena Biden, a family member in Mumbai, insisted that they were not trying to establish a relationship.
“We wish Mr. Joe Biden the best for his new role as President of the United States, but we are not trying to make connections or links,” she told AFP.
“We share a last name and that’s about it,” she says.
“We are all well off financially and have settled lives, so we don’t need any earnings – monetary or not.”
Rowena Biden said that after the first reports of the possible links were released, “people started following us to our house and everyone in the family had to bear the brunt of it.”
The “undue limelight” had cast a shadow over “the primacy of Mr. Biden’s victory and our privacy as well,” she said.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
