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MUMBAI (AFP) – Already brimming with pride in Ms Kamala Harris’ ancestry, India has now begun to unearth possible local roots for US President-elect Joe Biden.
The next leader of the United States has speculated that he may have had relatives in colonial India. While there is no proof, Biden’s name has become a genealogical research target across the country.
A plaque commemorating 19th-century British ship captain Christopher Biden has been a popular spot for taking selfies in the eastern city of Chennai since the US elections.
And a Biden family in western India says it has been “exhausted” by calls since its namesake submitted its claim to the White House.
The American vote has been the center of attention in India because Biden’s running mate is the daughter of a migrant from the state of Tamil Nadu.
Harris, 56, has made a lot of his connections to India and how he likes to eat “idli with a really good sambar,” typical southern food.
Less attention has been paid to Mr Biden, who has established links with Ireland. But he spoke of possible connections to India on a trip to Mumbai in 2013 when he was vice president.
Biden said in a speech that he had received a letter from a Biden Indian after he became a senator in 1972, suggesting they might be related.
“One of the first letters I received and I’m sorry I didn’t follow up on it,” he said.
Mumbai Bidens are hiding
The letter said that their “mutual, great, great, great, something or other worked for the East India Trading Company back in the 1700’s.”
It sparked excitement in Chennai, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu, which is also home to Ms. Harris’s Indian relatives.
A plaque at St George’s Cathedral in Chennai paying tribute to Christopher Biden, born in 1789, has suddenly become a local tourist attraction.
“We have come to know the records of two Biden, William Biden and Christopher Biden, who were brothers and became captains of the East India Company on merchant ships in the 19th century,” said the Bishop of Madras, Reverend J. George Stephen told AFP.
“While William Biden died at an early age, Christopher Biden went on to captain several ships and eventually settled in Madras,” which is now known as Chennai.
Despite speculation, there has been no confirmation that the Biden brothers are related 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 the eight children of John Biden who could be the common bond.
The media attention has been overwhelming, according to Maharashtra Biden. Indian media have speculated that his late grandfather Leslie wrote to the American politician.
Rowena Biden, a family member in Mumbai, insisted they were not trying to establish any relationship.
“We wish Mr. Joe Biden all the best for his new position as president of the United States, but we are not trying to establish connections or ties,” he told AFP.
“We share a last name and that’s it,” he said.
“We are all financially well off and have well-established lives, so we don’t need any profit, monetary or non-monetary.”
Rowena Biden said that after the first reports about possible ties came out, “people started tracking us back to our house and all the family members had to endure the worst of it.”
The “undue spotlight” had overshadowed “the primacy of Biden’s victory and also our privacy,” he said.
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