GYPSIES - Have You Ever Wondered?
Have you ever wondered about the origins of the Gypsies? I have.
What is it within an ethnic group that creates suspicion, fear and hatred of them? Gypsies carry the stigma of being thieves, the kidnappers of children and untrustworthy. In reading the book, The Rom: Walking in the Paths of the Gypsies by Roger Moreau, I became intrigued with his research and his theory. There are a great many gypsieologists who have attempted to trace the origins and history of this ethnic group that is now considered a race.
The Gypsies appear to be more despised than the Jews and have long been a puzzlement to me. From what I can ascertain, the gypsies' origins can be traced through their language and that places them in India. In tracing the root of their language, which consists of dialects and variations, the common thread is traced back to Sanskrit. This thread places them in India and although there is disagreement among gypsieologists, Moreau places them in northern India and from nomadic tribes descending from the Aryans.
Roger Moreau has arrived at a theory that resonates with me because it is the most plausible and could answer why the gypsies have been so despised. His theory also applies to genetics and the DNA and how conditioning can alter them. Scientists are now learning that attitudes and emotions play a great part in altering genes and DNA.
Moreau had a passion to learn about gypsies and while living in Australia, made a decision to go to India for research. Taking the traits of the gypsies that primarily are nomadic, traveling blacksmiths, animal husbandry and entertainment, he began searching for a tribe that held these traits. He thought in the beginning that he could locate the one tribe; however with a guide and a driver he learned there was not such a tribe.
Narrowing it down to three tribes, he located the remnants of the Gaduliya Lohar who were known as traveling blacksmiths. The second tribe he located were the Banjara known for skills of animal husbandry while the third were the Kanjar who were traveling entertainers. These groups are very small in India now due to the modernization of the lifestyles.
These present day tribes continue to ply their skills because their forefathers did and their forefathers, forefathers also were also plying the same skills. It had become an inherited trait and skill handed down from generation to generation. Moreau began researching small Indian libraries and what he learned were small bits of a larger puzzle.
From my research, Hinduism arrived in the Indus Valley approximately 1500 B.C. probably from the Aryan invaders and was enhanced by the arrival of the Brahmans from the south. It became a belief that everyone is born into a caste system and once in the caste system must live in it during this lifetime. This would create a genetic propensity for either superiority or inferiority.
In the early centuries from 1 A.D. to approximately 900 A.D., India with its many tribes retained their own sovereignty, with each tribe not mingling with another tribe nor was there intermarriage due to varying shades of religious beliefs. Intermarriage was considered a sacrilege. It was definitely a caste system, which has remnants in India today. India was collectively a number of tribes with no cohesiveness and because of their lack of cohesiveness and the caste system; the riches of India were ripe for the plucking. One tribe would never think of going to the aid of another. Their distrust of other tribes left each tribe open for the plundering by Mongol and Muslim raiders.
The more I read of Moreau’s theory, the more intrigued I became and there were a few moments when I question his theory because one might ask how could this be when by looking at a map of India, the northern section is bordered by the Himalayas, the south, east and west by seas. To the northwest and northeast are hill ranges connecting the Himalayas to the seas. However, to the west were several passes over the Hindu Kush connecting India with Afghanistan. This pass was the one most commonly used by northern invaders. And thus his theory became viable to me.
India was considered to be a lodestone of gold and emeralds and at that time one of the richest sources of plunder in the world. There are written records of a Sultan Mahmud Ghazi who brought back phenomenal riches “on the backs of 53,000 slaves.” In the reign of this Sultan, records show he brought back over 750,000 slaves. These were people from various tribes of India and primarily from the three tribes Moreau sought.
The Sultan was wise in the ways of attacking the various Indian tribes. He studied the weather patterns and determined that September through November were the best months to send his army into India for looting and to bring back more slaves.
It is difficult to imagine what these people endured along the trek to Afghanistan and in all probability many died along the way from exhaustion, starvation, beatings, rape and diseases. The hardiest of the slaves who reached Afghanistan were sold on the slave markets in the Middle East and perhaps as far as Europe.
Moreau pondered where the slaves were taken because the historical records in Afghanistan were closed to him. Possible archeological research will prove his theory correct. Studying as many old maps of Afghanistan that he could, he singled out the one place that met the requirements of a giant concentration camp. This place was bowl-shaped on a high plateau amidst the high mountains that provided the needed deterrent to escape. Moreau surmises it was the place called Dasht I Nawar. There were 3 streams coming down from the mountains that converged into a lake and could provide food and water for not only the slaves but for the warriors returning from a battle.
It could have been this place where for over 150 years the Indian slaves were brought, forced to co-mingle and perhaps were bred like cattle to be sold in the slave markets. It would be during this period that these people were stripped of their individual religions and began to believe that they had become horrid, wretched people not worthy of their gods.
From historical records these people did not leave India in a mass migration. Therefore Moreau’s theory is plausible. Life would not have been easy in Afghanistan where they were forced to do away with their caste systems. It would have been similar to what one might call ‘having their souls taken away.’
After approximately 150 years, the rule of Afghanistan changed from Moslem rule and there was the threat of invaders from the East – the Khan. These enslaved people would have felt they were now outcasts and could not return to India; therefore they began making their way into Iran and Turkey.
Moreau pinpoints this time of exodus around 1220 A.D. and perhaps they followed the Silk Road into Iran. Their journeys are easier to follow through historical records. There is large evidence of a large number of these Gypsies settling in Tabriz, but changes wrought by new winners of war and new rulers, prodded these nomads and unwanted people to begin moving into Turkey around approximately 1320. . It was here in Tabriz and Turkey that the women began to dance to earn money and to dress in bright clothing.
The next big change came in Constantinople – today Istanbul, where the Gypsies were tolerated but disliked. By the early part of the fourteenth century it appears the Gypsies were considered either slaves or artisans. By the mid-fourteenth century history apparently dropped all references to the Gypsies. With Moreau’s sleuthing, he finally picked up their trail. Circa 1347 there seemed to be an almost mass exodus from Constantinople to Greece by the Gypsies. Further research indicates that when Andronicium III died, the Byzantine Empire began to crumble and Black Death had made its way from China to Constantinople. Half the population died from this.
John VI Cantacazenus was now emperor and he hit upon a brilliant way to rid the city and the area of the Gypsies. He placed all the blame of a civil war, the Black Death and other incidents upon them. He ordered all the Gypsies to be rounded up and placed in the Hippodrome where they were exposed to the Black Death. Then they were marched to an area and forced to go to Greece. This was the Emperor’s revenge upon the Greeks.
It is easy to surmise what the Gypsies brought with them to their new homeland – the Black Death. Some of the Gypsies made their way north into Romania and Eastern Europe. Others made their way into France and on into England. Because of their bringing the Black Death with them, they were despised even more and the Gypsies carried with them what they believed to be a curse.
In the Romania and Bulgarian areas, the Gypsies became enslaved and were not freed until 1867. It is documented that as slaves they were stripped naked and dipped in black tar and this was their clothing winter and summer. They were fed food that was barely edible. However, they did survive – or some of them did.
Those who made their way to England were hated and in 1528 there were approximately 10,999 there. In 1530 they were banned and in 1547 Edward VI instituted a law that all Gypsies were to be branded with a V on their breasts and if they ran away and were caught, they would be branded with an S and made slaves for life.
It has been said that the Gypsies came from Egypt, however there is no proof of this. Other sources allege that to avoid being labeled as outcasts they began calling themselves ‘Egyptians,’ and this began to be shortened to Gypsies.
Even today, the Gypsies or the Rom are close-knit, so why would they want to steal babies? They have been an abused race and in Nazi Germany the experiments done to the children is almost beyond comprehension. In addition to extermination along with the Jews, the Gypsy twin children were sewn together as an experiment and the pain and cries were so unbearable that the parents had to kill them.
For eons the Gypsies have been the recipients of genocide and yet they survive. It would seem then that along with perhaps a genetic propensity to attract abuse and prejudice, that there is also a deep genetic design for survival. Before voicing prejudice and discrimination against a race, wouldn’t it perhaps be better if we understood them? It is something to think about.
What is it within an ethnic group that creates suspicion, fear and hatred of them? Gypsies carry the stigma of being thieves, the kidnappers of children and untrustworthy. In reading the book, The Rom: Walking in the Paths of the Gypsies by Roger Moreau, I became intrigued with his research and his theory. There are a great many gypsieologists who have attempted to trace the origins and history of this ethnic group that is now considered a race.
The Gypsies appear to be more despised than the Jews and have long been a puzzlement to me. From what I can ascertain, the gypsies' origins can be traced through their language and that places them in India. In tracing the root of their language, which consists of dialects and variations, the common thread is traced back to Sanskrit. This thread places them in India and although there is disagreement among gypsieologists, Moreau places them in northern India and from nomadic tribes descending from the Aryans.
Roger Moreau has arrived at a theory that resonates with me because it is the most plausible and could answer why the gypsies have been so despised. His theory also applies to genetics and the DNA and how conditioning can alter them. Scientists are now learning that attitudes and emotions play a great part in altering genes and DNA.
Moreau had a passion to learn about gypsies and while living in Australia, made a decision to go to India for research. Taking the traits of the gypsies that primarily are nomadic, traveling blacksmiths, animal husbandry and entertainment, he began searching for a tribe that held these traits. He thought in the beginning that he could locate the one tribe; however with a guide and a driver he learned there was not such a tribe.
Narrowing it down to three tribes, he located the remnants of the Gaduliya Lohar who were known as traveling blacksmiths. The second tribe he located were the Banjara known for skills of animal husbandry while the third were the Kanjar who were traveling entertainers. These groups are very small in India now due to the modernization of the lifestyles.
These present day tribes continue to ply their skills because their forefathers did and their forefathers, forefathers also were also plying the same skills. It had become an inherited trait and skill handed down from generation to generation. Moreau began researching small Indian libraries and what he learned were small bits of a larger puzzle.
From my research, Hinduism arrived in the Indus Valley approximately 1500 B.C. probably from the Aryan invaders and was enhanced by the arrival of the Brahmans from the south. It became a belief that everyone is born into a caste system and once in the caste system must live in it during this lifetime. This would create a genetic propensity for either superiority or inferiority.
In the early centuries from 1 A.D. to approximately 900 A.D., India with its many tribes retained their own sovereignty, with each tribe not mingling with another tribe nor was there intermarriage due to varying shades of religious beliefs. Intermarriage was considered a sacrilege. It was definitely a caste system, which has remnants in India today. India was collectively a number of tribes with no cohesiveness and because of their lack of cohesiveness and the caste system; the riches of India were ripe for the plucking. One tribe would never think of going to the aid of another. Their distrust of other tribes left each tribe open for the plundering by Mongol and Muslim raiders.
The more I read of Moreau’s theory, the more intrigued I became and there were a few moments when I question his theory because one might ask how could this be when by looking at a map of India, the northern section is bordered by the Himalayas, the south, east and west by seas. To the northwest and northeast are hill ranges connecting the Himalayas to the seas. However, to the west were several passes over the Hindu Kush connecting India with Afghanistan. This pass was the one most commonly used by northern invaders. And thus his theory became viable to me.
India was considered to be a lodestone of gold and emeralds and at that time one of the richest sources of plunder in the world. There are written records of a Sultan Mahmud Ghazi who brought back phenomenal riches “on the backs of 53,000 slaves.” In the reign of this Sultan, records show he brought back over 750,000 slaves. These were people from various tribes of India and primarily from the three tribes Moreau sought.
The Sultan was wise in the ways of attacking the various Indian tribes. He studied the weather patterns and determined that September through November were the best months to send his army into India for looting and to bring back more slaves.
It is difficult to imagine what these people endured along the trek to Afghanistan and in all probability many died along the way from exhaustion, starvation, beatings, rape and diseases. The hardiest of the slaves who reached Afghanistan were sold on the slave markets in the Middle East and perhaps as far as Europe.
Moreau pondered where the slaves were taken because the historical records in Afghanistan were closed to him. Possible archeological research will prove his theory correct. Studying as many old maps of Afghanistan that he could, he singled out the one place that met the requirements of a giant concentration camp. This place was bowl-shaped on a high plateau amidst the high mountains that provided the needed deterrent to escape. Moreau surmises it was the place called Dasht I Nawar. There were 3 streams coming down from the mountains that converged into a lake and could provide food and water for not only the slaves but for the warriors returning from a battle.
It could have been this place where for over 150 years the Indian slaves were brought, forced to co-mingle and perhaps were bred like cattle to be sold in the slave markets. It would be during this period that these people were stripped of their individual religions and began to believe that they had become horrid, wretched people not worthy of their gods.
From historical records these people did not leave India in a mass migration. Therefore Moreau’s theory is plausible. Life would not have been easy in Afghanistan where they were forced to do away with their caste systems. It would have been similar to what one might call ‘having their souls taken away.’
After approximately 150 years, the rule of Afghanistan changed from Moslem rule and there was the threat of invaders from the East – the Khan. These enslaved people would have felt they were now outcasts and could not return to India; therefore they began making their way into Iran and Turkey.
Moreau pinpoints this time of exodus around 1220 A.D. and perhaps they followed the Silk Road into Iran. Their journeys are easier to follow through historical records. There is large evidence of a large number of these Gypsies settling in Tabriz, but changes wrought by new winners of war and new rulers, prodded these nomads and unwanted people to begin moving into Turkey around approximately 1320. . It was here in Tabriz and Turkey that the women began to dance to earn money and to dress in bright clothing.
The next big change came in Constantinople – today Istanbul, where the Gypsies were tolerated but disliked. By the early part of the fourteenth century it appears the Gypsies were considered either slaves or artisans. By the mid-fourteenth century history apparently dropped all references to the Gypsies. With Moreau’s sleuthing, he finally picked up their trail. Circa 1347 there seemed to be an almost mass exodus from Constantinople to Greece by the Gypsies. Further research indicates that when Andronicium III died, the Byzantine Empire began to crumble and Black Death had made its way from China to Constantinople. Half the population died from this.
John VI Cantacazenus was now emperor and he hit upon a brilliant way to rid the city and the area of the Gypsies. He placed all the blame of a civil war, the Black Death and other incidents upon them. He ordered all the Gypsies to be rounded up and placed in the Hippodrome where they were exposed to the Black Death. Then they were marched to an area and forced to go to Greece. This was the Emperor’s revenge upon the Greeks.
It is easy to surmise what the Gypsies brought with them to their new homeland – the Black Death. Some of the Gypsies made their way north into Romania and Eastern Europe. Others made their way into France and on into England. Because of their bringing the Black Death with them, they were despised even more and the Gypsies carried with them what they believed to be a curse.
In the Romania and Bulgarian areas, the Gypsies became enslaved and were not freed until 1867. It is documented that as slaves they were stripped naked and dipped in black tar and this was their clothing winter and summer. They were fed food that was barely edible. However, they did survive – or some of them did.
Those who made their way to England were hated and in 1528 there were approximately 10,999 there. In 1530 they were banned and in 1547 Edward VI instituted a law that all Gypsies were to be branded with a V on their breasts and if they ran away and were caught, they would be branded with an S and made slaves for life.
It has been said that the Gypsies came from Egypt, however there is no proof of this. Other sources allege that to avoid being labeled as outcasts they began calling themselves ‘Egyptians,’ and this began to be shortened to Gypsies.
Even today, the Gypsies or the Rom are close-knit, so why would they want to steal babies? They have been an abused race and in Nazi Germany the experiments done to the children is almost beyond comprehension. In addition to extermination along with the Jews, the Gypsy twin children were sewn together as an experiment and the pain and cries were so unbearable that the parents had to kill them.
For eons the Gypsies have been the recipients of genocide and yet they survive. It would seem then that along with perhaps a genetic propensity to attract abuse and prejudice, that there is also a deep genetic design for survival. Before voicing prejudice and discrimination against a race, wouldn’t it perhaps be better if we understood them? It is something to think about.
Labels: genocide, gypsie, gypsies, Himalayas, india, persecution, roger moreau, sanskrit, the rom
posted by Bettye Johnson | Sunday, July 22, 2007
1 Comments:
This is an interesting piece,have you seen the crop of Gypsy reality shows? I wonder why we are interested in this grop now.
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