INTERNATIONAL ROMANI DAY CELEBRATIONS IN CHANDIGARH A REPORT Across the world at popular level the term Gypsy has

come to represent individuals or communities who lead a nomadic way of life. It invariably evokes feelings of permanent travel, dispossession and strong refusal to a settled life. For many Gypsy represent rebellious individuals and communities who want to retain their unique identity against all forms standardization. In the west, the term Gypsy is associated with some of the most marginalized and under privileged communities who have been treated like criminals by larger societies. For centuries, the Gypsies have been hunted down like wild animals and systematic methods were and are still employed by the state and larger societies to keep these pagan barbarians under strict control. While persecuted for their language, rituals, customs and ancient believes, the Gypsies have been the finest horse breeders, tool and weapon makers, dancers, musicians, healers, fortune tellers, alchemists, magicians; mendicants in nearly thousand years of European history. They produced wealth, gave health, created knowledge and entertained all but pushed to live on the peripheries. Burned alive in gas chambers and transported and traded across the boarders as captive labourers they were part of many empires. Strangely today, these communities with great artistic skills and cultural memories have a social profile as the epitome of all evils in European societies. Majority Roma, Europes single largest minority with nearly 1.5 million strong populations, is far away from being equal to the native Europeans or colonial migrants. They still live in the squatted Mohallas an area of trouble for the larger society. Gypsy, a pejorative term invented by British anthropologists to create a fictitious history of origins of these communities to medieval Egypt is not welcomed any longer by the members of these communities. For them, it represents slavery and subjugation of nearly one thousand years. In a historic event on 8th April 1971 in London, representatives from these communities came together and declared their freedom from thousand year old slavery. They proudly called themselves as Roma people, who trace their origins to the troubled history of early medieval India. Romani people and their well wishers, ever since celebrate this date as Roma Day. In 1976, India, the land of their ancestors land also joined their struggle by organizing the first Roma Festival in Chandigarh. Former Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi while participate the festival remarked I feel kingship with Roma people The Indian people support efforts to the Roma in enriching human culture A cursory glance at the early medieval Indian history from the arrival first Muslim ruler till the formation of Mughal Empire leaves us some disturbing impressions that the entire sub continent was in turmoil for nearly 500 years until it got settled when India became an empire under the Mughals. With Mughal dynasty Indian subcontinent achieved some stability and progress unlike the preceding centuries when the entire area was under the stress of incessant wars.

The elimination of native rulers and the transformation of the human societies along the dictates of the new rulers triggered off massive migration from the geographical areas where the invaders asserted their power and settled for future. History of war is full of victories and losses which hardly speak about its victims, a collateral damage to be forgotten amidst the chronicles of Sultans, Kings, Queens and empire building. Condemned to exile and enslaved to camps the refugees of wars have no place in recorded or written history. Material or physical evidences of their existence vanish or transformed as myths and folklores. The population movements in India are yet to find a place in available historical writings. The ordinary people who build the nations with their creative energy find no place in the chronicles of achievements or failures of empires. When new identities of power emerges through brutal wars and occupations, the ordinary people, its victims, either move voluntarily or engineered to move to distant places with a hope of finding some new safety on which they can rebuild their memories and practices. Many works on the early medieval history of India speak vividly about the defeat of the native rulers, looting of these nations by the invaders and establishments of new systems of laws. Considering the brutality of the occupation and creation of new power systems it is reasonable to assume that the victims of war, migrants, might have moved to all parts of the sub continent, probably across the world. It is unfortunate that we rarely find something which can help us to find what happened to the victims of these wars. Fortunately the scholarship that emerged during the past few decades on the origins of Roma offers some possibilities to connect our memories with these war victims. Most of the available theories about the origin of Roma suggest that they were the descendents of migrants of wars who might have traveled west from India/ Pakistan to Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia, Russia, Iraq and arrived in Ottoman Turkey, a travel route of the famed Silk Route. The first recorded evidence on the appearance of Roma people in Europe, dates back to 14th century AD, suggests that these people were engaged to provide critical support services such as weapons and tools to the Turkish Ottoman Empires European expansion. Also it is being observed by some that many Churches of the Orthodox Christianity on Balkan mountain cliffs would not have been possible without the works of scab labourers war migrants sold during the trade fairs as salves. Majority of the Roma, who have traveled to Europe with Turkish Ottoman Empire remained in the Eastern parts of the continent or Balkan areas till 19 th century. They have been hunted down by both the Islamic Ottomans of Turkey and Christian Europe. For survival in these hostile societies Roma had adopted pragmatic or rather strategic methods. They concealed their anger and tragedy in music, dance and many other cultural practices. Even while many European states declared war on them, the larger societies welcomed them for their skills but of course with suspicion and fear. Pragmatically the Roma had to accept the dominant religion of the area where they settled but retained their ancient believes and practices within their enclaves which made

them suspicious in front of the larger society. The Roma voluntarily picked up the local social logics and assimilated within in its cultural fabric wherever they had settled . When Romania formally stopped their slavery in 19th century AD they started moving further West from their closed enclaves with limited access to mainstream society and its progress. Unlike Jews who had a direct stake in the World War II, the Roma had no other role except its destiny to get sandwiched between the two warring faction . They were subjected to kinds of criminal experiments in the Nazi concentration camps, a forgotten holocaust. A period of peace and dignified existence the Roma people enjoyed with the rest of the society was when Communists ruled Eastern Europe till early 1990s. They communist rule gave them equal rights and many Roma persons appeared in the fore front of the society. They had equal rights to state resources, access to education, employment and state redresses systems. After the collapse of the former Soviet Union in Russia and Communist rule in Eastern Europe, the Roma people once are the targets of vicious attacks by the larger societies across the Europe. Many of them became internally displaced or refugees or migrant labourers in the lands which they have been living for nearly one thousand years. Though condemned to live in the periphery of host societies, Roma communities retain their culture almost intact and resisted to get assimilate and disappear. These conscious acts to retain their identity and history have resulted in their linkages with Indian roots. This year too Chandigarh remembered Roma people and their struggle for freedom when a group of scholars, poets and artists met to discuss their history, origins, language, human and civic rights and artistic, cultural and spiritual traditions. The meet also explored possibilities to develop some pro active measures to sustain the initiative in Chandigarh in coming years. While attempting to look at the large and complicated history of outward movement of culture from India, Shri.Suresh Kumar Pillai, Project Head Diaspora Resource Centre, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha attempted to look at Roma as part of the Indian Cultural Diaspora. The Indian origin of Roma is best established by linguists who have worked on the similarities between Romani languages with that of Indian. Many of these studies have confirmed that almost all the different dialects of Roma people across the world have its roots in Indian sub continent. From early 18 th century AD many eminent linguists in the West who have studied the Romani languages suggested that these languages are close to Prakrit and Sanskrit. Drawing from nearly three decades of research and study of the Romani language and its relation to nearly 400 different Indian dialects eminent linguist Shri. Janrdhan Singh

Pathania, who is presently preparing a publication on Romani vocabulary and grammar in Hindustani language, emphasized the need for more initiatives to study Romani language and its linkages with India. This linguistic evidences studied along with the Roma cultural expressions in Music, dance, fine arts, and other motives prove that Roma have their origins in the North west parts of India . Eminent Punjabi writer and cultural activist, Shri. Dev Bhardwaj, who organized the event under the banner of Writers Club, expressed the hope that more such initiatives are required to bring Roma people close to India. Scholar and poet Dr. D.S.Gupt while expressing unity with Roma people traced back the Roma migration to Mohammad Ghaznavis attacks on India. Remembering his father W.R.Rishi who have organised the first Roma festival in Chandigarh, his son Shri.Virendra Rishi who presently lives in UK presented a proposal to hold exhibitions based on themes such as Roma Holocaust. Shri. N. S. Rattan, poet and former bureaucrat, sharing his anguish and dismay of living conditions Roma people in Europe, said Roma people are certainly people of Indian origin and to be reconnected through such regular events. A number of poets including Manjit Indira, Sham Singh, Surjit Kaur Bains, Nirmal Jaswal, B.K. Pannu Parwaz, Surinder Gill, Nirmal Dhianpuri, Parkash, Shashi Prabha, Devi Dayal saini, Nirmal Jaswal And Taran Gujral presented their poems on PARVAAS (Experiences of Migration/Diaspora) and expressed solidarity with the struggling of Roma people during the meet. The participants have resolved that a Roma House should be built in India as a material and intellectual space to revitalize the knowledge related to Roma Indian history and culture. It is suggested and agreed by participants that an action committee may be formed to develop the concept ahead. Report prepared by Suresh Kumar Pillai Email: trikkan@gmail.com