A World Culture

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"By careful study of the Romani language, we are able to trace our roots," says Dr. Ian Hancock, professor of Romani studies and linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. "We originated in northern India, in the early 11th century, the same period in which the Hindi and Punjabi cultures emerged."

Although theories about the particular caste origin of the Roma vary, Hancock and a number of his colleagues favor linguistic evidence of a military history. "The most common word for someone who is not a Rom," he explains, "is gadjo, coming from a Sanskrit word -- gajjha -- meaning 'non-military person.'" Even today, non-Roma are referred to as "civilians" by Roma in parts of Europe.

With the disintegration of the Indian empire in the 11th century, Roma began to migrate north and northwest. For the next three centuries, they traversed what are now Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, where they mastered the art of metalworking, moving northward to southern Europe, then east to Armenia and Russia.

The Romani migration into eastern Europe during the medieval period was followed by 500 years of enslavement. In what is now Romania, the Roma arrived as free people but were pressed into slave labor within the feudal system once their artisan skills of metalcraft, carpentry and entertainment were recognized. It was not until 1864 that the Roma were officially emancipated.

Five centuries of servitude, Hancock and others say, left a mark of wariness toward the non-Roma world. As a result, many Roma stayed away from urban areas, preferring to travel in small groups. Some even denied their ethnic heritage for fear of further persecution. Both the traits of voluntary isolation from non-Roma communities and an unwillingness to identify themselves publicly remain widespread among Roma today.

It was as ship's cargo that the Roma arrived in the Americas, when two Romani women accused of being criminals accompanied Christopher Columbus' third voyage to the island of Hispaniola (comprising present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti), where they were abandoned in 1498. From the 15th through the 18th centuries, other countries, such as Spain, Portugal and England, sent Roma to South and North America to provide slave labor for newly acquired colonies.

One of the largest migrations of Roma to the United States occurred in the late 19th century following the abolition of slavery in southeastern Europe. Nevertheless, U.S. immigration restrictions soon stemmed the tide of Romani immigrants. Half a century later, the Holocaust -- referred to by the Roma as Porraimos, "the Devouring" -- took anti-Gypsy sentiment to it most horrific extreme. The approximately 1 million Roma killed by the Nazis because of their rassenverfolgte -- "racially tainted heritage" -- included between 70 and 80 percent of the German Romani population. At Auschwitz-Birkenau alone, more than 21,000 Roma were killed -- some 4,500 on the single night of Aug. 31, 1944, now known as Zigeunernacht, or "Gypsy Night."

Today there are an estimated 10-12 million Roma worldwide, roughly half of them in Europe. In the U.S. and Canada, the Roma stand some 1 million strong. Their numbers increase daily as the rise of ethnic nationalism and racial persecution in Europe forces them to flee to safer shores.