He grew up in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and graduated from Harvard in 1990 and Columbia Law School in 1993.

His father, a Sikh, and his mother, who was Hindu, were born in what is now Pakistan. In the violent migration that occurred after the 1947 partition, his father and mother both moved to the Indian side, with their families losing property and most of their possessions, Bharara has said.

His wife's father, a Muslim, also moved, from the Indian side into Pakistan, also losing his home 'and much, much more,' as Bharara put it according to the Times. And his wife's mother was born in Palestine, after her father, who was Jewish, escaped with his family from Nazi Germany.

'Four different families, practicing four different faiths - all compelled to flee a half century ago because of their religion,' Bharara said in a speech to the South Asian Bar Association of New York in 2007.

'It also means,' he joked, 'that even when my wife fasts for Yom Kippur, and my father-in-law fasts for Ramadan, I get to stuff my face with samosas all day.'