New FBI Director Kash Patel’s Gujarati roots: Know about his family’s journey from India to Uganda to America

Indian-origin Kash Patel took oath on the Bhagvad Gita as the ninth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday.

Kash Patel is the first Indian-origin American to take oath as FBI chief. He belongs to a dominant Gujarati community Patidar, and his family relocated from India to the US decades ago.

All about Kash Patel's Gujarati roots

Kash Patel's family shifted to Uganda from India's Gujarat nearly seventy to eighty years ago. His family had to face a lot of hardships in Uganda, including the atrocities of its genocidal regime. At last, his parents fled to the United States for a peaceful and better life.

Journey from Gujarat's Bhadran village to Uganda

Kash Patel's ancestral lineage is linked to a small village named Bhadran in Gujarat's Anand district. His family migrated to Uganda decades ago from Gujarat. New York-born Kash Patel belongs to the Patidar community.

Before shifting to Africa, Patel's ancestors had sold their houses and other properties. Most of Kash Patel's family members are now settled in different foreign countries, reported PTI citing members of Patidar community.

Patel family’s expulsion from Africa

Kash Patel’s parents and other members of his family were forced to leave Uganda due to its ‘genocidal’ regime. After being expelled from Africa, his family returned to India for a short duration after 1970, recalled Rajesh Patel.

Indians who migrated to Uganda were forced to leave the country by its dictator, Idi Amin, who seized power in a military coup in 1971. In 1972, he ordered the Indian community members to leave his country in 90 days.

Patel family's journey to America

“Those Indians who were expelled from Uganda had come to India for a brief stay as they had applied for asylum in the UK, US or Canada. Kash Patel’s family had also come here for a brief stopover and then moved to Canada once their applications were accepted,” he said.

After being forced to leave Africa, Kash Patel’s parents and other family members reportedly shifted to Canada and then to the US.

While recalling the painful journey of survival of his parents, Kash Patel said that his parents fled Uganda’s genocidal regime, where more than three lakh people were murdered.

“They chose America, standing in line because freedom and the American dream were worth everything,” Patel can be heard as saying in the video.

Kash Patel’s family tree, aka Vanshavali

Patidar community’s organisation, Chh Gam Patidar Mandal, based in Anand, has maintained a ‘vanshavali’ (family tree) of its members, including Kash Patel’s ancestors.

The organisation has records of the last eighteen generations of Kash Patel’s family. “In the ‘vanshavali’, we have the names of Kash Patel’s father, Pramod Patel, and also his brothers and grandfather,” PTI quoted the organisation's secretary and Anand district BJP present Rajesh Patel as saying.