Thursday 5 April 2007

Romas of Europe as Earliest Indian Immigrants

I recently had the ocassion to look up the etymology of the word for God. In the course of my explorations I came across some startling finds. I wish to share the same with you.

I was startled to discover, that the Romas of Europe, the much maligned, neglected and unintegrated, outsiders of the neo liberal, selectively expansionist, European welfare state, use a term called "Devel" or "Del" for God, as a central term in the faith of the Roma people.
Now this set alarm bells ringing in my mind.

In Hindi and Sanskrit, we use the term called devta for the gods. I have often been intrigued by the familiar looking dresses of people standing by the wayside on roads of many European cities.
Some of them playing music, some selling old magazines, some selling brass as gold rings.
A couple of times when I could condescend to go and talk to some of them, they would always greet me with a hearty hug and smile when they came to know I was from India.
So, in a sense, I, the epitome of sophisticated, cultured, upper class, well bred, university educated Indian, out to make my mark on cynical Englishmen, would be taken aback by this profoundly non european, informal way of greeting, on the streets, of european cities.
But somehow, I never made any mental connection, and indeed, like an Indian Brahmin, would have felt thoroughly ashamed if anyone had used the term New Roma for me.
But nowI realize my foolishness as the more I study, the more my ignorance ofthe phenomenon called life, glitters brilliantly.
These poor and discarded Romas, the scourge of the Social Services departments and paid social workers of West European countries, knew I was an Indian, and they happened to be just the only ones in Europe, genuinely happy, to see an Indian on the roads of Europe.
Amazing stuff.

So as a consequence of these linguistic adventures, I had the ocassion to study about the Romas of Europe, I was amazed to read, "a further mystery is the exact region within India which may have been the original territory occupied by the Romas before their emigration, to different parts of Europe."
Then it all clicked. Oh my God, I thought in perfect sounding academic English, taught to me by Methodist Christians, or as the Romas would say, "mo, mro, or my"devla. What a world we live in.