MUMBAI: US President Joe Biden said after becoming a senator in 1972, he had received a letter from one of the Bidens in India and learned that his “great, great, great, great, great grandfather” worked in the East India Company. The letter was written by Nagpur-based Leslie Biden, whose grandchildren live in Nagpur. Leslie claimed his family had been living there since 1873.
Leslie was the manager of the Bharat Lodge and Hostel and Bharat Café. From Illustrated Weekly of India’s issue of March 28-April 4, 1981, Leslie came across an article about the then US senator, Joe Biden. Then, he got in touch with Joe Biden through a letter sent on April 15, 1981. Joe Biden even replied to Leslie through a letter dated May 30, 1981. Later in 1983, Leslie died in the orange city – Nagpur. Leslie Biden’s descendants live in Nagpur, Mumbai, the US, Australia, and New Zealand.
Joe Biden’s great, great, great, great, great grandfather George Biden was a Captain in the East India Trading company. After retirement, he decided to settle in India and married an Indian woman. His brother Arthur migrated back to England. When Joe Biden came to Mumbai in 2013 as the Vice-President of America, he said that his distant relatives were living in Nagpur.
The Biden family has been living in Nagpur since 1873. When contacted, Rowena Biden, one of the Bidens of Nagpur, refused to talk about it. “Our elders will speak on this tie-up between US President Joe Biden and Indian Biden,” Rowena told this newspaper
on Saturday.