The Romani Hindu Faith/Dharma, Culture & History

THE BIG ERROR & HOW I FIXED IT: Genetic researchers studying the Roma people often make significant errors in their work. They collect DNA samples based on the countries where Roma live or the tribes they belong to, but this approach mixes up different genetic lineag es.  This approach risks conflating distinct ancestral lineages that exist within these groups, leading to very inaccurate conclusions. Why is grouping by country/tribe problematic? Because it assumes these are biologically meaningful categories, when in fact they are socio-cultural or political. Two people from the same Roma tribe in Slovakia might belong to different, long-separated Indian lineages (castes). Grouping them together  as if they are one population  creates a statistical average that doesn't represent either lineage accurately, producing misleading "mixed" ancestry results. I fixed the error by my independent research on a  population genetics shows that the Roma communities in Eu...

  How the Ambedkarites don't understand religion/faith: The Ambedkarites are among the groups actively encouraging various segments of society to renounce  Sanātana Dharma   ( A Sanskrit term meaning "eternal law" or "eternal order." In modern contexts, it is often used as a term for  Hinduism , emphasizing its ancient and traditional roots and principles. ) . They engage in direct cooperation with Islamic Da'wah ( An Arabic term meaning "invitation" or "call," referring to the Islamic duty of inviting others to the faith, i.e.  proselytisation = Islamic missionary work) and Christian missionary organisations. This is despite the fact that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar himself was sharply critical of Islam, as he wrote: "The (Muslim) mission to break the idols thus became the mission to destroy Buddhism." and "Islam destroyed Buddhism, not only in India, but wherever it went." My primary concern is that the Ambedkarites are effec...

A certain faction within the Ambedkarite movement perpetuates a misunderstanding regarding the Romani people. They incorrectly assert that all Roma are Dalits.  This view stems from a fundamental lack of comprehension of our distinct history, social structures, and lived realities. We, the Roma, explicitly reject being labelled as the "Dalits of Europe", because s uch claims are not only historically inaccurate but also socially misleading. Within the Romani societies, there exists a group analogous to the Dalits, whom we term  Degeša  (plural of the singular form  Degeš ) used among the Servika Roma tribe of Slovakia (and the Czech Republic post-WW2). These are individuals and families associated with tasks considered ritually impure according to the Romipen's traditional Romani norms, such as working with leather, handling corpses, residing near or on the cemeteries, dealing with waste or excrement, or street sweeping, as well those who engage in taboo behaviours s...

Explaining Roma Monotheism as a Dharmic Tradition, Not Evidence of Non-Indic Origins Some of the Roma believe that their ancestors, both in India and after migrating to Europe, were strictly monotheistic, worshipping only Devel/Devla/Del as a single God, and interpret this as evidence of origins outside the Indian subcontinent, perhaps tied to Israelite (as influenced by the Christianity within the host countries), or other non-Indic cultures. However, this belief in one God aligns perfectly with the spiritual traditions of the Indian Subcontinent, particularly within Hinduism and broader Dharmic frameworks. Here’s how Devla reflects the Indic concepts of Param Brahman and the worship of a chosen deity, not a non-Indic monotheism. 1. Understanding Devel in Roma Belief Romani View: Devel is seen as the supreme, formless God, eternal and all-pervading, often described as beyond human understanding. For many Roma, other figures like Devloro (Little God, linked to Jesus nowadays) or Sara l...

Debunking the Myth of Israelite Origins for the Roma: A Cultural and Ritual Comparison Some Roma communities have started to claim the Israelite origins, a narrative possibly born from shared experiences of diaspora and persecution or as a strategy to gain acceptance in Christian Europe or as a means to break with India which is presented in the European or the Western media as a backward country. However, a close comparison of Roma and Jewish cultural practices, particularly around ritual cleanness and chastity laws, reveals stark differences, firmly rooting Roma identity in the Indian Subcontinent’s Ḍom heritage rather than Israelite traditions. 1. Origins and Historical Context Roma: Linguistic, genetic, and cultural evidence traces Roma origins to the Ḍom people of India (among other Indian People), who migrated westward between 525–1000 CE. The Romani language derives from Sanskrit and Prakrit, and genetic studies show significant AASI (Ancient Ancestral South Indian) ancestry, c...

  Who were the AASI? The AASI ( Ancient Ancestral South Indians ) represent a hypothetical ancestral population in India , inferred from genetic studies. They are considered the original hunter-gatherer inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent , and their lineage predates the arrival of agriculturalists and pastoralists from other regions , such as the Iranian Plateau and Central Asia. In other words; The AASI likely descended from populations that migrated out of Africa and reached South Asia tens of thousands of years ago, possibly as early as 50,000–70,000 years ago. They were primarily hunter-gatherers and lived in the Indian subcontinent long before the development of agriculture. Genetically, they were distinct from other major ancestral populations of India, such as those associated with Neolithic Iranian farmers and the Steppe Pastoralists (i.e. the Aryans). The AASI are often linked to the Neolithic & Mesolithic (in fact older, i.e. Paleolithic) populations found i...

  From outside of the communities: Racism This includes; - Verbal attacks & threats, including calls for sending the "Gypsies to the Gas chambers" or calling the Roma "black mouths. - Physical attacks, including arson attacks or Policemen violence on the Roma. - Genocide, including attacks on the Roma communities by the Para-Military or Terrorist groups whose aim is to eradicate the Roma in the territories under their realm. Many times also happened sterilisation done by the State on the Roma, when Romani women were sterilised without any information or against their will. - Institutional Racism, it is done by the state institutions, this includes sending automatically all Roma children to the Special School (which is for mentally or physically retarded children), as well as Police-profiling based on race. Under the Institutional Racism also belong -> Disadvantage on getting Work (many Employers reject Roma to become their Employees), as well worse Health Care qua...

The  original Ḍom People started migrating from southern India (apparently somewhere in between nowadays Tamil Nadu and Kerala, with stops taking longer time than 300 years in nowadays Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka) to northern India in 2500 BC. Some etymology to the name Ḍom. It´s presumed root, ḍom, which is connected with drumming, is linked to word damara and damaru, Sanskrit terms for "drum" and the Sanskrit verbal root डम् ḍam- 'to sound (as a drum)', perhaps a loan from Dravidian, e.g. Kannada ḍamāra 'a pair of kettle-drums', and Telugu ṭamaṭama 'a drum, tomtom'. So, Ḍom literally means the "drummers" = musicians. Why Ḍom are ancestor of the Roma? From Ḍom arose our ethnic name Rom - the Roma, in some dialects still with retroflexed R. In elsewhere pronounced as Dom/Domari with normal "D" in the name (within the Middle East & in Pakistan) and Lom (in Caucasus). Closest people to the original Ḍom are nowadays Adi...