Romani people in Romania, locally and pejoratively referred to as the (), constitute the second largest ethnic minority in the country behind Hungarians. According to the 2021 census, their number was 569,477 people, constituting 3.4% of the total population.
The real size of the total population of Romani people in Romania is considered to be higher, with different estimates varying from 4.6 percent to over 10 percent of the population, as many Romani do not declare themselves as such.Margaret Beissinger, Speranta Radulescu, Anca Giurchescu, Manele in Romania: Cultural Expression and Social Meaning in Balkan Popular Music, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, p. 33, Holly Cartner, Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Persecution of Gypsies in Romania, a Helsinki Watch Report Human Rights Watch, 1991, p. 5, In 2007, the Council of Europe (CoE) estimated that approximately 1.85 million Roma lived in Romania,Council of Europe - Roma and Travellers based on an average between the lowest estimate (1.2 to 2.2 million peopleCouncil of Europe, doc. GT-ROMS(2003)9-prov. (restricted) 17 September 2003.) and the highest estimate (1.8 to 2.5 million peopleLiégeois, Jean-Pierre (1994). "Roma, Gypsies, Travellers", p. 34.) with a maximum percentage of 12%, available at the time; the highest estimate, generated for the year 1991 and originating from a Securitate report, is considered unreliable, and Romanian post-communist censuses have consistently produced far lower figures. CoE's average estimate is equivalent to 8.32% of the population, a figure difficult to verify due to the mobility of Romani and the reluctance of some to disclose their ethnicity.
Origins
Romani people are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who traditionally lived a nomadic lifestyle. History, genetics and linguistics reveal that the ancestors of the Roma originated in South Asia, likely in the regions of present-day Punjab, Rajasthan and Sindh, which are part of contemporary Northwest India and Pakistan.
The history of their arrival in Romania, around 1370, is presented below.
The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in present-day India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Gujarati, Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali. A 2020 whole-genome study showed that, while Romani people originate from northern India, they also have substantial European Balkan and Middle Eastern admixture, reflecting their migration patterns. According to that study, the Romani common ancestors split from the Punjabi population, in Northwest India, some generations before the diaspora started, over 2,000 years ago.
Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the ancestors of the Roma originated in present-day northwestern India and migrated as a group. According to this study, the ancestors of contemporary scheduled tribes and scheduled caste populations of northern India, traditionally referred to collectively as the Ḍoma (the Indian Sanskrit word डोम (doma) means a member of a Dalit caste of travelling musicians and dancersRama Sharma (1995). Bhangi, Scavenger in Indian Society: Marginality, Identity, and Politicization of the Community. M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. p. 126. ISBN 978-8185880709.), are the likely ancestral populations of modern European Roma.
In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.
Terminology
Their original name is from the Sanskrit word डोम (doma) and means a member of a Dalit caste of travelling musicians and dancers. The shift from Doma to Roma/Romani is believed to have been influenced by the Greek word Romaios, during the Romanies' arrival and settlement in the Balkans during the Byzantine period. The Byzantine Empire was referred to by its inhabitants as Romanía.Hancock, Ian. We Are the Romani People (Ame sam e Rromane džene). Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2002. pp. 6-7. "Some writers have suggested that its form was influenced, during our ancestors' time in the Byzantine Empire (then called Romanía), by the Greek word Romaios ('Roman')"
Since the 1990s, the word has also been used officially in the Romanian language, although it was used by Romani activists in Romania as far back as 1933.
Two spellings of the word exist in Romanian: rom (plural romi), and rrom (plural rromi). The first spelling is preferred by the majority of Romani NGOsMinoritatea Roma – cea mai importanta minoritate din Europa. Romanes.ro. Retrieved on 2012-01-15. and it is the only spelling accepted in Romanian Academy's Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române. The two forms reflect the fact that for some speakers of Romani there are two rhotic (ar-like) phonemes: and .Matras, Yaron (2005). Romani: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . In the government-sponsored (Courthiade) writing system is spelt rr. The final i in rromi is the Romanian (not Romani) plural.
Depending on context, the traditional and colloquial Romanian name for Romani, "țigani", may be considered pejorative in Romania.
In 2009–2010, a media campaign followed by a parliamentary initiative asked the Romanian Parliament to accept a proposal to revert the official name of country's Roma (adopted in 2000) to Țigan (Gypsy), the traditional and colloquial Romanian name for Romani, to avoid the possible confusion among the international community between the words Roma — which refers to the Romani ethnic minority — and Romania. The Romanian government supported the move on the grounds that many countries in the European Union use a variation of the word Țigan to refer to their Gypsy populations. The Romanian upper house, Senate, rejected the proposal.Romania Declines to Turn Roma Into 'Gypsies' at balkaninsight.com
History and integration
Arrival Linguistic and historical data reveal that the Roma arrived in the Balkans during the Byzantine period.
It is probable that the first arrival of Roma in the territory of present-day Romania occurred shortly after 1370, when groups of Roma either migrated or were forcibly transferred north of the Danube, with Roma likely reaching Transylvania, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary, in the final decades of the 14th century. The first written record of Roma in Romanian territory dates to 1385 and is from Wallachia, noting the transfer of a group of Roma to the ownership of the monastery of Prizren, their presence then being documented in Transylvania in 1400, and Moldavia in 1425. It is, however, worth noting that the dates above relate principally to the first arrival of Roma in future Romanian territories, waves of migration from the south continued up until the 18th century, when the northward migration of the Roma, some of whom were Turkish-speaking Muslims, was still occurring.
Slavery period
Romani in Wallachia and Moldavia were, from their arrival in the region, enslaved, a situation which continued until the emancipations of the mid-19th century. The institution of Romani slavery also existed in Transylvania, especially in regions which had undergone a period of control by Wallachian or Moldavian princes, but the majority of Transylvanian Roma were not slaves. One child of a former Roma slave, Ștefan Răzvan, briefly achieved power in Moldavia, ruling as Voivod for part of the year 1595.
The economic contribution of slavery in the Danubian principalities was immense, yet no economic compensation was ever paid to freed slaves. The current state of social and economic exclusion in Romania has its roots in the ideology and practice of slavery, and therefore its effects are still felt today. Public discussion of Roma slavery remains something of a taboo in modern Romania, no museum of Roma history exists, nor are there any monuments or memorials to slavery. Textbooks and the Romanian school curriculum either minimise this and other aspects of Roma history or exclude it entirely.
There were Romani slaves called laiesi who were permitted to move around the estates performing various tasks such as musicians, farriers, whitewashers, sieve-makers, blacksmiths, and coppersmiths. Romani slaves owned by the Church worked as grooms, cooks, and coachmen; among the household slaves were scopiti, Romani men who were castrated to prevent them from posing a threat to the white noblewomen they served. Field slaves lived in satras, which were groups of reed and mud huts located on the edges of the estates and rarely visited by their owners. They were prohibited from having musical instruments for their own enjoyment and were bought and sold in groups also called satras, cetas, or salases. Groups of Romani slaves were overseen by a vatav or overseer (also known as a ciocoi), who was sometimes extremely cruel. Although the law forbade killing Roma slaves, it was not uncommon. Household Roma slaves were forbidden from speaking their native Romani language, and their descendants, known today as the Boyash, primarily speak a Latin-based Romanian dialect rather than Romani. Roma female household slaves were also given to white visitors for sexual entertainment, and any mixed-race children born from this exploitation automatically became slaves. In the sixteenth century, a Roma child could be bought for the equivalent of 48 cents. Romani women were subjected to rape and sexual abuse by white men, while Romani men who had sexual relations with white women were castrated or burned alive. White Romanian men viewed enslaved Romani women as hypersexualized objects. These women were repeatedly subjected to rape and forced pregnancies by white men, who exploited them to increase their own financial gain and wealth. White Romanian men impregnated and sexually assaulted Romani women as a means to uphold white supremacy. A particular group of enslaved Romani women, called țiitoare (concubines), was established exclusively to offer forced sexual services to their white masters.
Vlad the Impaler owned around 11,000-12,000 Romani slaves.
Romani slaves were given mămăligă to eat. For centuries, cornmeal served as the main food for Roma slaves. Being enslaved, the Roma were frequently tied to the land and endured difficult conditions, with mămăligă providing an inexpensive and reliable source of nourishment for them.
Slavery in Wallachia and Moldavia
The institution of slavery in Wallachia and Moldavia predated the arrival of the Roma in the region, and was at that time principally applied to groups of Tatars or Cumans resident in the territory. Although initially all the Roma were owned by princes, groups of Roma were very quickly transferred to monasteries or boyars, creating the three groups of Roma slaves; princely slaves, monastery slaves and boyar slaves. Any Gypsy without a master would automatically become a princely slave, and any foreign-born Romani passing through the prince's dominion risked being enslaved. The Tatar component of the slave population disappeared in the second half of the 15th century, fusing into the more numerous Roma population. During this period, the Roma were organised into bands composed of 30-40 families. These bands were delineated by profession and named for the nature of their economic activity, examples include gold-washers (aurari), bear-baiters (ursari), musicians (lăutari), and spoon-makers (lingurari).