11-13-2007, 08:36 PM
Honsol, you'd probabily find this interesting.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Gypsies were the first Bharatiya expatriates
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Agreed that gypies were the first Bharatiya expatriates, But, I disagree with Valery Novoselsky that Roma are a 'racial' group. They are the lineage of Bharatiya people who had lived on the banks of River Sarasvati. It is unfortunate that the 'race' term surfaces again and again while some try to stereotype communities. Ancestors of gysies were mleccha-speakers.
-xxxxxx
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Q&A: 'Gypsies were the first Indian expatriates'
12 Nov 2007, 0000 hrs IST , Meenakshi Kumar
Valery Novoselsky has been active in international Roma movement. As the editor of Roma Virtual Network, an organisation that provides helpful information on Roma issues through the internet, he is trying to change perceptions about his people. Novoselsky was recently in the capital for a talk on the Roma (commonly referred to as Gypsies) in Europe and their ancestral relations with India . He spoke to Meenakshi Kumar:
<b>Has the condition of the European Roma changed? </b>
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, there has been an improvement. But some problems continue. Lack of education and unemployment still plague most European Roma. Across Central Europe, from Czech Republic to Macedonia, 70-80 per cent of working-age Roma are unemployed. When it comes to education, 90 per cent students are placed in schools meant for the disabled and one-third of Roma children don't study at all. But things are improving, even though the pace is slow. Many Roma, moreover, live in deprived and segregated areas with poor-quality housing, a lack of basic services and limited access to good quality health care.
<b>The Roma have been looked at with suspicion over the years. Under the communists they got a raw deal. Does the discrimination still exist? </b>
Discrimination is less visible today, but it is there. Changing ethnic stereotypes is not easy. There are countries which try to stop the Roma from entering their boundaries. Even some members of the European parliament have anti-Roma attitudes.
They talk about a Europe for the Europeans. Now, where will the Roma people go? They don't have a country of their own; they adopt the country they are born into. That's one of the reasons why many Roma people refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for fear of discrimination. And that's why we still don't have their true numbers. The communists were against the Roma style of life, which is basically against totalitarianism.
<b>It's believed that the Roma have an origin in India? How true is that? </b>
Yes, it's true. Our roots are here. It were circumstances which forced us to move and spread out. Mahmud Ghazni took our ancestors from different parts of north India to Afghanistan and Iran. Later, with every successive invasion, they were forced to move out and seek refuge in different parts of the world.
Over centuries we have become a part of the country we adopted as our motherland. Roma were the first Indian expatriates. And now after years, many of us realise that we need a connection with our real homeland. We have to return to our forgotten motherland and it has to be a two-way process. As far as our connection with the banjaras is concerned, we believe that the latter are just a social group. On the other hand, Roma is a racial group. http://tinyurl.com/2cbpx7Â <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Gypsies were the first Bharatiya expatriates
 Â
Agreed that gypies were the first Bharatiya expatriates, But, I disagree with Valery Novoselsky that Roma are a 'racial' group. They are the lineage of Bharatiya people who had lived on the banks of River Sarasvati. It is unfortunate that the 'race' term surfaces again and again while some try to stereotype communities. Ancestors of gysies were mleccha-speakers.
-xxxxxx
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Q&A: 'Gypsies were the first Indian expatriates'
12 Nov 2007, 0000 hrs IST , Meenakshi Kumar
Valery Novoselsky has been active in international Roma movement. As the editor of Roma Virtual Network, an organisation that provides helpful information on Roma issues through the internet, he is trying to change perceptions about his people. Novoselsky was recently in the capital for a talk on the Roma (commonly referred to as Gypsies) in Europe and their ancestral relations with India . He spoke to Meenakshi Kumar:
<b>Has the condition of the European Roma changed? </b>
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, there has been an improvement. But some problems continue. Lack of education and unemployment still plague most European Roma. Across Central Europe, from Czech Republic to Macedonia, 70-80 per cent of working-age Roma are unemployed. When it comes to education, 90 per cent students are placed in schools meant for the disabled and one-third of Roma children don't study at all. But things are improving, even though the pace is slow. Many Roma, moreover, live in deprived and segregated areas with poor-quality housing, a lack of basic services and limited access to good quality health care.
<b>The Roma have been looked at with suspicion over the years. Under the communists they got a raw deal. Does the discrimination still exist? </b>
Discrimination is less visible today, but it is there. Changing ethnic stereotypes is not easy. There are countries which try to stop the Roma from entering their boundaries. Even some members of the European parliament have anti-Roma attitudes.
They talk about a Europe for the Europeans. Now, where will the Roma people go? They don't have a country of their own; they adopt the country they are born into. That's one of the reasons why many Roma people refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for fear of discrimination. And that's why we still don't have their true numbers. The communists were against the Roma style of life, which is basically against totalitarianism.
<b>It's believed that the Roma have an origin in India? How true is that? </b>
Yes, it's true. Our roots are here. It were circumstances which forced us to move and spread out. Mahmud Ghazni took our ancestors from different parts of north India to Afghanistan and Iran. Later, with every successive invasion, they were forced to move out and seek refuge in different parts of the world.
Over centuries we have become a part of the country we adopted as our motherland. Roma were the first Indian expatriates. And now after years, many of us realise that we need a connection with our real homeland. We have to return to our forgotten motherland and it has to be a two-way process. As far as our connection with the banjaras is concerned, we believe that the latter are just a social group. On the other hand, Roma is a racial group. http://tinyurl.com/2cbpx7Â <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->