The Bashalde controversy explained by me & more issues - USA vs Europe

The Bashalde controversy & who is Ian Hancock 

In among the Romani diaspora within the United States of America of the "Hungarian-Slovak Gypsies" (the Servika & Ungrika Roma tribes) started the controversy, when Ian Hancock and Bill Duna innovatively created term for the musician "caste" the Bašaldé (Bashalde) to become a name of the whole tribe in the USA, as most Servika & Ungrika Roma who came there belonged to the musicians or were at least the blacksmiths with musician tradition (I will explain it later on).

This controversy was brought to the light by Stephen Piskor, a widely known person of the Hungarian-Slovak Roma community from Cleveland, OH. He is a real Rom, related to me via family ties of the wider family of mine (Fajta) who came to the USA as immigrants from Eastern Slovakia, so I am not underestimating his point of view, I am just explaining to you my viewpoint.

There are the Roma who disagree with this term "Bashalde", as they see it as a new term, which it indeed is, as we use words like "Lavutari" (Musicians, as Lavuta is a loanword based on word "Lute" for violin) or "Muzsikus Cigányok" (Musician Gypsies, used in Hungarian language).

To explain the tactics behind this new name "Bashalde", the Ungrika Roma (the Hungarian Roma) are divided into various caste-like groups based on the traditional work done by the groups (mirroring Indian Jāti system), among the Ungrika Roma is largest the Musician "caste" (that´s why the Hungarians and Ungrika Roma themselves mostly say that the "Magyarcigányok" - which in Hungarian is the Hungarian Roma - is usually referred as the "Muzsikus Cigányok"), second largest being the Blacksmith "caste" which is divided into two groups, those who do exclusively blacksmithing and those who alongside blacksmithing do as well the music. There are as well other "castes" among the Ungrika Roma but are marginal in numbers.

The Servika Roma from Slovakia are primary the Blacksmiths (Kovača/Xarťasa), second largest "caste" is the Musicians (Lavutari). Same as the Ungrika Roma among the Servika Roma exist those Kovača who do exlusively blacksmithing and those who alongside blacksmithing do music and I believe that as well the Snake-Catcher "caste" (mirroring the Indian Sapera somewhat, and Kalbeliya) did a music alongside their main job, same as do the Indian Sapera and/or Kalbeliya do. Note: The Snake-Catcher "caste" is no longer existing, they worked for grófok/landlors to clear up areas of the snakes like 300 years ago. And as well, among the Servika Roma is more "castes" which have larger numbers than among the Ungrika Roma.

To return to the topic, I think that the "Bashalde" term is a try to translate Lavutari/Muzsikus term into fully Romani term, as Bašavel means to play a music/to make noise and "(me) bašav" usually means "I play music", so "Bašaldé" is a logical term derived for this "caste". This is where Stephen Piskor isn't agreeing with me, as to him the new term is alien to us.

Ian Hancock is seen by a lot Roma (and Gadžé) as a true authentic Rom, but with him is a problem, he few times changed his declared Romani tribal identity from Ungriko Rom to Lovári Vlax Rom etc. Many Romani researchers say that he in fact is not a Rom but a Jew, plus his own son knows no Romani language and Rom(an)ipen.

My problem with using the word "Gypsy" in the "Hungarian-Slovak Gypsies"

The word "Gypsy" is wrong and racist, as it culturally synonyms with a Slave and Wanderer.

As well, there is no word "Gypsy" in the Romani language, we used word "Rom" and its derived suffixes. Only those Roma who don't speak the language use word "Gypsy" to call themselves.

The word "Gypsy" is same as Pepicy/Čehúni/Knedlíci for Czechs, Čoboláci/Severní Maďaři for Slovaks, Lapps for Saami, Jerries/Skopčáci for Germans.

And the "Gypsies" is often used by the/and for the non-Roma ethnic groups like are for example the Rudari/Boyash & the Irish Travellers (Pavees).

I do prefer the "Hungarian-Slovak Roma" term to be used for our communities in the USA or our traditional tribal names.

The traditional tribal names in historical context:

We the Slovak Roma referred always to ourselves as the Servika Roma (meaning the "Serbian Roma", as we came from Serbia, it´s oldest referrence to our umbrella tribe name, maybe alongside "Pajbano"), then many use the name Slovačika Roma (meaning the "Slovak Roma", it was slowly taking over recently, when old people died out), then is used the Kherutna Roma (which means the "Roma living in the houses", this name started being used when the nomadic groups came from Romania - these who came were Vlax Roma, Vlax means "Romanian" from word "Oláh" in Hungarian language referring to Wallachia, the Vlax Roma started to call us all "Romungré" - which means the "Hungarian Roma" and has pejorative shade in it, as it is often used against those who are not holding traditions, nor speaking the language by the Vlax Roma).

The Servika Roma are divided into two major groups (who often intermingled) the Vixodňara and Zapadňara (Eastern and Western, referring to western and eastern parts of Slovakia, we often "clash" over who is a better and more authentic Rom), there as well existed sub-groups like a sub-group Vešeskera or Vešengera Roma (the forest Roma, who were living in the forests of central Slovakia, but they were small, and had everywhere š even in words where is s), but it was with a very few people.

Linguistically the Servika Roma have many dialects, with smaller or bigger differences among regions and sometimes among villages but belong to the Northern portion of the Central Romani Carpathian dialect umbrella.

The Hungarian Roma who speak the language who are called "Magyarcigányok" in Hungarian call themselves the Ungrika Roma (from them comes my grandmother), and they have sub-groups in regions of Hungary like Prekmurska Roma and Veršendska Roma with own sub-dialects.

Linguistically the Ungrika Roma belong to the Central Romani Carpathian dialect umbrella.

The Servika and Ungrika Roma are related and probably came from same parts of Serbia (in wider sense) to Hungary. As well settled-down in around the same time.

The Boyash controversy - a mistake to call the Hungarian Roma as the Boyash

There is a mistake when the Boyash are referred as the Hungarian Roma in many sources and some Vlax Roma of the USA use this term to call the Servika & Ungrika Roma by this name.

The Boyash (Beás/Baieşi) are not the Hungarian Roma, Beások are the Rudari non-roma slaves, they speak archaic Wallachian (Romanian), not Romani and often hate us or try to join us. We consider them degeš (ritually unclean), the Vlax Roma consider them kaštale (ritually unclean, non-roma gypsies).

The mistake was probably done because the Boyash came to the USA from Hungary where to they migrated in 19 Century, when the slavery in Wallachia was abolished, and to the USA they came in 1900s, with other Roma tribes of Hungary (in wider sense).

Note: The Rudari have some sub-groups who either Romised and joined some Kalderar groups in Bulgaria or the Rudari were always divided into Roma and Non-Roma Rudari, as there exist the Rudari-Kopanari who are considered to be Roma tribe and hold the Romanipen.

Note 2: Some of the Boyash are the Roma who lost Romani identity a long ago. But most are totally different people of various origins, some have Indian origins (same as we, but a different Varna origins or possibly Avarna, thus not same origins as we have), Central Asiatic origins (there were some Central Asians enslaved by the Mongols and took to nowadays Romania), some are Europeans/Africans who were in what is now Romania since the Roman Empire's times and got enslaved (all enslaved people in Wallachia were referred as "Gypsies").

Note 3: Some of the Romanian Rudari are referred as Ludari. Those seem to be something like the Bulgarian Rudari-Kopanari, but often lost the Romani language, while they still uphold Romanipen.

Note 4: There are some Boyash who mixed with the lower-"caste" Servika Roma, nowadays these people speak the Romani language (sub-dialects of Serviko dialect), consider themselves to be Roma and often to be seen by us as the Roma but they often engage in degeš activities (behaviour, food, no real romipen).