Author: Hristo Kyuchukov
Publication: Organiser
Date: April 29, 2001
There are about one and a half
crore Romas in 39 countries of the world. They are originally Hindu and
immigrated to different parts of the world about one thousand years ago.
During this period they have managed to preserve their Indian culture.
Recently a 33-member delegation of Romas was in India to attend an international
conference held in New Delhi. Organiser representative spoke go the General
Secretary of the International Roma Union, Shri Hristo Kyuchukov, to know
the Roma culture and about the purpose of their visit to India Excerpts:
First, tell me something about Roma
people and their culture.
Roma people are basically Indian.
They migrated from India about one thousand years ago. They were living
in North-East parts of India. The main reason of their immigration was
the invasion of Islam. After leaving India they visited different countries
and continued to move from country to another country and thus spread all
over Europe. From Europe they spread world over like USA, Australia, South
Africa, etc. But during that period they preserved their culture, cultural
values and traditions. Of course, being in communication with other European
and American cultures in different countries they also adopted some cultural
values from these foreign cultures. The new generation, undoubtedly, has
started forgetting those cultural values that their forefathers brought
from India. We are very much concerned that our future generation may lose
the connection with their original roots i.e. India. That is why we have
come here to re-establish communication with our Indian brothers and with
the Government of India, It is reversing us world over. We hope our new
generation will be able to return to their original roots.
How have you managed to preserve
your Indian values during the last 1000 years?
It is quite interesting. We have
been able to preserve our culture through the oral history, as the Roma
people were mostly illiterate. All the folk tales, Gods and all the names
of different traditional celebrations have some connections with India.
In the family life the structure of family is such that everyone respects
the elder generation and the role of man and woman in the family is exactly
the same as in India. It is interesting for me to find that everything
look familiar here.
What do you expect from your brothers
in India?,
What we do expect from India is
some kind of acceptance. Now we are not really accepted and acknowledged
as Indian immigrants. The, Government of India has not yet declared that
those people who have immigrated ten 'centuries ago are of Indian 'origin.
Now what we really expect is moral support, acceptance and acknowledgement
as well as more contacts so that we could take Hindu traditions and Hindi
as language to Europe to reestablish it among Roma community and to give
a chance to Romas to revive their own cultural values.
How are you feeling now after visiting
India?
Quite emotional. It is so great
to be hem. It is like a dream come true.
What is the outcome of the meeting
with Prime Minister of India?
We requested the PM that we expect
moral support on the part of your government. We are looking for closer
cooperation between India and the International Roma Union and the organisations
that am represented by the Roma in 39 countries of the world. The Prime
Minister has assured us every kind of support and cooperation. Also a working
group with the representatives of both India and International Roma Union
to solve the problems of Romas will soon be formed. We are sure that there
would be some positive outcome of our visit to India.