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The Romani people originated in northern India, very likely from what is the modern Indian state of Rajasthan.
The Roma began to migrate westwards into the Byzantine Empire around 500 CE through what is now Iran, Armenia, and Turkey.
By nature an itinerant people, Roma brought with them an assortment of skills. Many were artisans, adept in woodwork and copper craft. Others had experience working on farms, or as blacksmiths.
By the second half of the 20th century, Roma could be found on every inhabitable continent.
Repeated migrations pushed the Roma further west. They were in southeastern Europe by the beginning of the 14th century, and in western Europe by the 15th century. Pictured are Roma arriving in Bern, Switzerland.
Some Roma demonstrated more esoteric knowledge, working as palm readers or fortune tellers.
And as if naturally gifted, most Roma were accomplished musicians and spontaneous entertainers.
Initially, Roma were welcomed for their skills. But governments and the Church viewed them with increasing suspicion, even going so far as to brand them as heathens. Soon, Roma were being ostracized and forced into slavery. Pictured is a 1852 Wallachian poster advertising an auction of Romani slaves in Bucharest.
In the mid-16th century, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I ordered Roma to be expelled from Moravia and Bohemia. In 1660, Romanies were prohibited from residence in France by Louis XIV. The 17th century also witnessed Roma being either forcibly removed or deported from countries across Europe, nations that included Germany, Holland, and Italy. In 1685, Portugal even made it a crime to utter the Romani language, whatever the dialect. Jail awaited dissidents; others were simply executed without trial.
Persecution of the Roma continued into the 18th century. In 1710, Joseph I issued an edict that effectively resulted in the mass killings of Romani across the Holy Roman Empire.
In the Great Gypsy Round-up of 1749, the Spanish monarchy authorized and organized a raid across Spanish territories that led to the genocide of 12,000 Romani people.
Roma were forbidden to marry under an edict issued in 1774 by Maria Theresa of Austria.
The passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 in Britain led to the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833. In Romania during the 1830s and 1840s, a campaign began to convince the wealthy slaveholders to free their slaves. Then in 1855–1856, the Moldavian and Wallachian Assemblies voted unanimously to abolish slavery and serfdom within their principalities. By the 1860s, the majority of Roma traveled as free nomads with their wagons; large groups of Romani moved to the east, towards Poland, which was more tolerant, and Russia, where the Romani were treated more fairly as long as they paid the annual taxes. Large scale Roma emigration to the United States also begun during this period.
As the nomadic Roma crisscrossed Europe, they introduced their unique culture to a wider public. Those skilled in arts and crafts found a market for their wares.
Flamenco is firmly rooted in Romani culture, the first migrants bringing with them to Spain musical instruments such as guitars, tambourines, bells, and wooden castanets, as well as an extensive repertoire of songs and dances. Some of today's most celebrated flamenco artists are of Romani ethnicity.
The guitar defined Romani music: the instrument drove the flamenco sound, and few Roma communities were without their bands of musicians (pictured). By the early 20th century, the flamenco-playing technique had been adopted by the likes of renowned Romani-French jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Traditional Romani crafts have always been rooted in their nomadic lifestyles. Basket weaving, elaborate woodworking and metalworking, and leatherwork... these skills and more were needed in order to survive a life on the road, as well as to provide a source of income.
Living on the outskirts of society, Romani communities endured ever-present discrimination and persecution. Their wanderings for the most part helped them avoid contact with the authorities and potentially hostile neighbors. But by the 1930s, a tragedy of immeasurable proportions was starting to unfold.
In 1936, the Nazis established the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit. Headed by Robert Ritter (pictured left conducting an interview with an elderly Romani woman), the unit's aim was to determine the racial classification of the Roma.
The racial policies adopted by Nazi Germany and its allies across Europe in the latter half of the 1930s led to the regime determining Roma as "enemies of the race-based state." Europe's Romani people (including the Sinti) were rounded up in their hundreds of thousands. Pictured in May 1940 are Sinti in the courtyard of Hohenasperg prison prior to deportation to a camp in Poland.
Roma and Sinti women at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Those pictured here were among as many as 55,000 inmates—many suffering from typhus and dysentery—who were found alive in the camp after its liberation by Allied forces in 1945.
The Romani Holocaust, also known as the Porajmos, sealed the fate of the Roma in Europe. Pictured are Romani prisoners at Belzec labor camp in Poland in 1940. Belzec later became one of the most notorious of the Nazis' extermination camps.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Romani and Sinti were killed by the Nazi regime and their collaborators.
After the war, the Romani people faced renewed hostility. According to Amnesty International, Roma continued to be discriminated against and oppressed, especially in the Soviet Union. Between the 1970s and 1990s, the Czech Republic and Slovakia sterilized around 90,000 Romani women against their will.
In 1971, the first World Romani Congress unveiled the international ethnic flag of the Romani people, embellished with the red, 16-spoked chakra.
At the same congress, the song 'Gelem, Gelem' was adopted as the Roma anthem. And it was affirmed that usage of the word "Roma" (rather than variants of "Gypsy") would be the accepted global term to describe the Romani people.
Anti-Romani sentiment is still prevalent today. In Europe alone, millions of Roma live in isolated slums, often without any electricity or running water, and struggle to get the health care they need.
Romani children often suffer segregation in schools and receive a lower standard of education.
Several organizations and projects, however, entities like the World Romani Congress, European Roma Rights Centre, and the Gypsy Lore Society, continue to advocate for the well-being of the Romani people and promote their rich and unique culture.
Sources: (Britannica) (Amnesty International) (Travellers Times) (Smithsonian Magazine) (History Today)
In fact, as early as the 16th century Roma were suffering persecution. The Egyptians Act of 1530 was legislation passed by the Parliament of England in 1531 to expel the "outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians," meaning Gypsies (when Roma first appeared in England in the 16th century, they were wrongly believed to have come from Egypt).
The Romani, also known colloquially as the Roma, are an ethnic group of traditionally nomadic itinerants whose origins are rooted in India. Long persecuted and discriminated against, Roma have always been viewed with suspicion by the outside world for their language, customs, and tightly-knit communities. And yet Romani culture has given us some of the world's most recognized music and dance, and inspired art, movies, plays, and operas. But what do we really know about this historically oppressed and misunderstood people?
Click through and find out more about the troubled history of the Romani.
The heavy history of the Romani people
Why were the Roma viewed with such suspicion and hostility?
LIFESTYLE Society
The Romani, also known colloquially as the Roma, are an ethnic group of traditionally nomadic itinerants whose origins are rooted in India. Long persecuted and discriminated against, Roma have always been viewed with suspicion by the outside world for their language, customs, and tightly-knit communities. And yet Romani culture has given us some of the world's most recognized music and dance, and inspired art, movies, plays, and operas. But what do we really know about this historically oppressed and misunderstood people?
Click through and find out more about the troubled history of the Romani.