Meet the Roma: 2,000 years ago, the first
‘Indians’ to go to Europe
Written by Pooja Khati
New Delhi Published:Feb 23, 2016, 1:00
New Delhi Published:Feb 23, 2016, 1:00
Who are
the Roma?
The Roma or Romani are a
travelling people who live mostly in Europe and America, and whose origins are
widely accepted by anthropologists, historians and geneticists as lying in
northern India. The Roma are known by different names in different countries —
Zigeuner in Germany, Tsiganes or Manus in France, Tatara in Sweden, Gitano in
Spain, Tshingan in Turkey and Greece, Gypsy in the UK, etc. Some of these names
have clear derogatory connotations and are considered racial slurs by the
Romani people. In her speech to the International Roma Conference and Cultural
Festival in New Delhi on February 12, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj counted painter Pablo Picasso,
actor-filmmaker Charlie Chaplin, entertainer Elvis Presley, Hollywood icon
Michael Caine, tennis star Ilie Nastase, and actor Yul Brynner among prominent
Roma.
What is
the world’s Roma population? Where do they live?
The precise number is
unknown, in part because of the reluctance of many Roma to disclose their
ethnicities in official national censuses for fear of attracting harassment or
persecution. Minister Swaraj told the Roma conference that as of 2016, the
global population of the community is estimated to be around 20 million. Roma
peoples live in some 30 countries across West Asia, Europe, America and
Australia. The largest Roma community is in Turkey — around 2.75 million. Some
1 million are estimated to live in the US, and around 800,000 in Brazil.
Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Spain and France all have
sizeable Roma populations.
So, what
is the Indian connection of the Romani people?
The Romani language has
obvious similarities with languages spoken in northern India, and many of the
commonest Romani words, including the numerals, are near identical to their
modern Hindi names. Examples: the Romani yek (Hindi ek); dui (do); trin (teen);
shtaar (chaar); panchi (paanch); sho (chhe); desh (dus); bish (bees); manush
(manushya, or man); baal, kaan and naak, which are the same as the Hindi words
for hair, ear and nose; kalo (kaala, or black), etc.
The first wave of the Roma
are thought to have left India probably with the armies of Alexander of Macedon
around 326 BC, who, Swaraj said at the conference, took them along as “they
were iron smelters and experts in making war weapons”. The word Roma itself is
believed to have come from the Sanskrit domba, or the modern dom or its
variations, found in several Indian languages, referring to lower castes
engaged in a range of menial works and, at places, in itinerant singing and
dancing professions.
The cultural similarities
between the Roma and Indian communities include an association of the colour
white with mourning, applying of mehndi on palms by Roma brides, and laws of
ritual purity and taboos of birth and death. A woman in childbirth is considered
impure, and must have her baby outside her caravan home or tent lest it be
polluted. The high incidence of child marriages, and belief in gods similar to
Shiva, Kali and Agni too are considered evidence of their links to Hindu
culture.
The authors of a 2012 study
analysed some 800,000 genetic variants in 152 Romani people from 13 Romani
communities across Europe and concluded that the Roma people left northern
India about 1,500 years ago; and those Roma who now live in Europe migrated
through the Balkans beginning about 900 years ago.
Why are
the Roma regarded with fear by some people and persecuted by some governments?
Popular narratives in film
and literature represent the Roma as people of unpredictable temper and
mystical or occult powers, including fortune-telling. They are also often
represented as thieves or law-breakers, adding to the general negative
perceptions about them.
The prejudice has
translated into persecution by governments almost since the beginning of their
migration to Europe. They were enslaved or killed in Germany, Italy and
Portugal, faced discrimination because of the colour of their skin, and were
accused of bringing the great plague to Europe.
The Nazis sent the Roma to
labour camps. In 1934, Turkey passed a law allowing the government to deny the
Roma citizenship. In the 1980s in Czechoslovakia, Roma women were forced to
undergo sterilisation. Even now, there are incidents of Roma children being
taken away from their parents, and women having their ears chopped. In 2010, 51
illegal Roma camps were removed by the French authorities, triggering an uproar
and threats of action from the EU.
So where
is the ‘Roma question’ headed?
The main aim of the Delhi
conference was to bring to the attention of governments the issues being faced
by the community. It was proposed to study the political, social, and economic
challenges it faced, and to examine the constitutional safeguards available to
them. A 2011 survey in 11 European countries had found that only one out of two
children from the community went to school on average, and only one out of
three adult Roma was in a paid job. Almost 90% of Roma in these countries lived
below the poverty line, and almost half of them had faced discrimination
because of their ethnic background.
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