Sep 6

Written by: host
9/6/2007 10:08 AM

Roma people, also called as Romanies and Gypsies, live mostly in Europe and Americas. Roma people, originally Hindus, belonged to Punjab/Sindh of North-west India. They believed to have migrated to Europe via Persia to escape Muslim onslaught around eleventh century AD. Rough estimates put their population at 15 to 30 million now, out of which close to 10 million live in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe.

India had seen waves of Islamic onslaughts during medieval times. Killing innocents, pillaging the sacred, enslaving the defeated became the practice. On one account, Ghazni Muhammad took over 500,000 people as salves to his kingdom who might have migrated to Europe to escape persecution. They are also a few other theories on Roma’s migration from India. As per W.R.Rishi, one part of the defeated army of Prithviraj Chauhan, set off across Afghanistan to Europe. As per some other theory, Romas were a victorious Hindu army against Muhammad Ghazani, who went further and eventually crossed over to Europe.

They were worshippers of Goddess Kali centuries ago but later on adopted the religions prevalent in their host countries like Christianity and Islam. Music and Palmistry were some of their favourite professions. Even though they were away from their homeland, they maintained strong commitment to their culture for centuries and keep themselves away from other cultures. This had nearly marginalized them from the societies around. Often, they were treated very inhumanly and were subjected to discrimination and persecution. Many European countries had their hands soaked with the blood of Roma people. Romas were rounded up and hunted down like animals in many of the European countries and the hunters were rewarded by the rulers. Nazi Christians of Germany exterminated about a million Romanies along with several million Jews. Countries like Hungary, Romania, Spain, France, Finland along with many other European countries had their share in persecution of their own Roma people. Roma people are subjected to human rights violations even now and live in utter poverty in these countries. Countries, who boast of civil rights and civil liberties, are shamefully silent when it comes to Romanies.

I happened to read the following account from one of websites by Artur Radvansky — a Jewish Holocaust survivor:

"I witnessed the most terrible thing, something which no-one else knows about in this country because no-one else is alive to remember it. One day, the Auschwitz guards brought in between 400 and 600 Roma from Germany. Many of the men were former German soldiers who had fought in Poland during the First World War. Some of them were still wearing their medals: the Knight's Cross, if you're familiar with it. They were decorated soldiers — German soldiers — and yet one night the guards came and took them to the gas chambers to be killed."

The world acknowledge with great grief the holocaust of Jews by Nazi Christians. However, the holocaust of Romanies by the same groups is selectively ignored. It is important for Romanies to unite and fight for their basic civil rights. Hope one day, this centuries old discrimination will end and they too will live with dignity and respect wherever they are.

Video on holocaust of Roma:

Some of the Roma websites:

 

1. http://www.romani.org/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_people
3. Roma Music
4. http://www.romawomen.ro/

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