What does it mean to be a gypsy?
The term “gypsy” has multiple meanings:
- A member of the Romani people, a nomadic ethnic group who originated in northern India and now live primarily in Europe. The word “gypsy” comes from the mistaken European belief that the Roma people came from Egypt.
- The Romani language is an Indo-Aryan language.
- A person who resembles the Romani, especially in physical characteristics or a traditionally ascribed freedom or inclination to move from place to place.
- A person who wanders.
- A shortened and altered form of Egyptian.
Some Gypsies object to the name “gypsy” and prefer to be called Romany.
The Romani are often celebrated for their musical heritage, which has influenced jazz, bolero, and flamenco music, as well as classical composers, including Franz Liszt. Many Romani still face persecution and discrimination and are denied rights and services in the countries where they live.
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
The literal answer is to be one of the Roma or Romany people. They have been called gipsies because they were believed to have come from Egypt (in fact, they originated in India, I think). Because the Roma were travellers/wanderers, someone who wanders/travels is sometimes described as a gipsy.
The term “gypsy” historically refers to a member of the Romani people, an ethnic group with origins in South Asia, particularly in the Indian subcontinent. The Romani people have a diverse culture and are spread across various regions, with significant populations in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
However, it’s essential to note that the term “gypsy” can be considered outdated and potentially offensive. Many Romani people find it derogatory because it has been used historically as a stereotype and can perpetuate negative stereotypes and misconceptions.
Using the term “Romani” is more respectful when referring to this ethnic group. Additionally, remember that Romani communities are diverse, with different cultural practices, languages, and traditions among their various subgroups. Using specific and respectful language helps promote understanding and avoid perpetuating stereotypes.
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
In the US, Roma tend to have biblical names like Christopher, Michael, Mark, and George. This is probably because there is a growing Evangelical Christian movement among Roma in the US. Furthermore, many Roma are Orthodox Christians, which is estimated to be the majority religion for Roma worldwide..
It is common for names we think of as “nicknames” to be the actual first name, for example, Franky or Nicky.
Rose or Rosa is a widespread name for American Roma women. My Roma friend and colleague has at least three female relatives named either Rose or Rosa. It is speculation on my part, but I suspect this has to do with the traditional Roma trade of selling flowers.
Some other American Roma names I’ve heard for women are Nina, Silvia, and Sabrina.
The most common Roma surnames in the US are Miller, Marks and Eli. Once again, Eli is a biblical name. Marks may also be, but I’m not sure of the origin. I can’t say where Miller came from because I’m unaware of any connection between Roma and the operation of mills. It might be an Ellis Island Americanization to take a shot in the dark.
It is common for Roma to hide their ethnicity to avoid prejudice, which would explain why Roma names in the US seem relatively average.
What’s it like to be a Romani gipsy?
I am a British Romany, my ancestral family go back 500 years, so I can tell you what it is REALLY like.
I am each day accused of every vile crime under the sun; when we go shopping, we are followed by security guards as if we’re prolific thieves, we are spat on in the street, told that we are “scum” “parasites” and should be gassed to death.
Our children are bullied, beaten and often expelled for the crime of “self-defence” When you go out looking for scrap metal, you get pulled over by the police up to five a day and treated like mass murderers on the run.
We have our religion called “Romaniyah”, which commands us to be different in every aspect as opposed to evil gorgio society. We DO NOT murder, rape, start riots, go on violent drink binges and vomit on the streets; we DO NOT abuse children (neither do we steal them). We are not greedy, and WE DO NOT and MUST NEVER judge an individual by physical appearance; judgement is allowed only through the heart’s intentions.
We’ll break bread with the tramp, take care of the orphaned and the widow, and respect our elders AND the older Gorgio peoples since they came from an era of morality and human decency. And yet we are hated beyond belief and more than any can bear for crimes we have NEVER committed.
What’s it like being a Gypsy? Suppose you can imagine Christ carrying his cross through Jerusalem, being kicked, punched, spat on and accused of every evil ever committed under the sun. In that case, you have a perfect and very apt analogy of what it’s like for me and mine to be a Gypsy.
Why did the Gypsies (Roma) move from India to Europe hundreds of years ago?
The origins of the Romani, also known as the “Gypsies,” were a mystery until a Hungarian theology student in the 18th century made a groundbreaking discovery. After meeting three Indian students with speech patterns similar to those of the Gypsies he knew in Hungary, he traced their language back to Sanskrit, an ancient language spoken in India.
Historians now agree that Romani culture originated in northwest India. Romani began to leave India about 1,000 years ago to escape the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni. The Romans did not have a strong written or oral history tradition, so scholars studied their language and the written accounts of people who met them on their travels to piece them together.
In Iran, they split into two groups. One group went south, through Syria, to northern Africa and Greece, while the other group went north through Armenia before arriving in what is today Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia. Many Romani stayed in these Balkan countries, while others migrated farther west into Europe.
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
Europeans who first encountered the Romani people greeted them warmly. Aristocrats who met the Romani in the 15th century gave them letters of protection to travel from one country to another. The Romans adapted to the surrounding culture wherever they went. The Romans kept many of their traditions.
Performing arts and metalworking, sculpture, jewellery-making, and practical metal arts are vital components of Romani culture. Romani are often recognized as excellent musicians and dancers. For example, flamenco, a song and dance style still popular today, originated from Romani in the Andalucia region of southern Spain.
The early goodwill toward Romani migrants eventually disappeared as Europeans began to resent Romani for refusing to integrate into society fully. Romani were blamed for begging, thievery, kidnapping, prostitution, and witchcraft. Many were put into slavery.
Migration of Romani People – National Geographic
Greetings,
I will need some clarification on what you are asking, as there are two ways to answer this question, depending on your use of “gypsy”.
If you are using it to refer to someone who is Romani or Sinti, it means being part of an ethnicity originating from northwestern India. It is due to the three major waves of migration to Europe during the Middle Ages that the term “Egyptian”, Giptian” and finally “Gypsies” from a fictitious place called “Little Egypt”.
Remember that most Europeans in this period were born, lived, and died, having never travelled further than 30 miles from their hometown; this included nobility. Unless you were a merchant, mercenary, a representative paid to travel (a crowner, tax collector, or religious representative), or a pilgrim (person on a spiritual pilgrimage) – you would never know whether entirely foreign people originated.
The use of “gipsy” has been argued by some Romani groups, mainly (but not exclusively) from Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic, as an offensive/derogatory term. Especially since “being gypped” is historically tied to this term. However, other Romani groups believe in using “Gypsy” constructively, preferring it (or Cigana) over Roma. So there is one answer.
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
The other answer is because of the Romani migration to Europe, and later the merchant practices & culture of Pre-WWI Romani/Sinti (and also Scottish & Irish Travellers, who are a separate ethnic itinerant group of Celtic origin) that the use of “gypsy” meant someone who wanders/travels without a permanent dwelling, vagabond.
If you are using that meaning, in modern times, there are more non-Romani than actual Romani, who are “gypsies”. Again, using the term can get you into some issues regarding ethnicity, authenticity, and (mis-)appropriation.
I hope that this answers your question.
What’s it like to be a Romani gipsy?
That depends on what sort of Romani population you belong to. My grandfather was highly traditional, and many of my relatives live as nomads in the Southwest US. But my father was integrated- he lived in a house, had a job, etc.
A lot depends on how strictly one adheres to maritime (Romani cleanliness laws, for lack of a better term); those who are very traditional are often closed off from the rest of society due to distrust of gadgets (non-Roma); some of this stemming from maritime law. I live in a house, have a job, drive a car, etc, but retain Romanipen (enfranchisement) in my father’s family, so I straddle the line a bit.
We are often very religious and conservative, contrary to stereotype; most of us are Catholic, but a growing number identify as Romaniya, a reconstruction of traditional Romani folk religion (itself Vedic in origin). Pentecostal Christianity is also on the rise, mainly in the West.
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
Because of how much discrimination exists against us, a lot of Roma pass themselves off as either Hispanic or Indian in the US. In much of Europe, it’s a tough life, even if a person isn’t nomadic, and because of discrimination, it’s hard to get jobs for a lot of us, leading some to crime as a way to survive (which is why the typical “why don’t they get a job” response doesn’t hold a lot of water).
We still deal with deportations (even though we, as a collective grouping of people, have been in the West since about 1300), camp burnings, racial slurs, segregation, hate crimes and economic disadvantage.
Also, protip- a lot of us don’t find the word “gipsy” all that complimentary and find the white-people concept of the romantic, tambourine-dancing rogue to be offensive and a gross misrepresentation of our culture. We also don’t think much of the argument that “gypsy” refers to a lifestyle rather than our culture, considering the word’s origins, how it’s used, and how often it’s still used as a slur.
What’s it like to be a Romani gipsy?
It depends on where you live. I grew up in a very liberal part of California, and the most that ever happened would be some older men and women giving me dirty looks out in public when I was wearing my dialogue.
The internet, however, was a different story. I used to be an admin on an activism account, and one day, I posted a selfie of me wearing my dialogue with the hashtag #OpreRoma. I got the nastiest comments from people I had never even met. Comments calling me a whore, a thief, and many things like that.
Sadly, though, where I live is that there isn’t a large Romani community, and considering I’m a didikai (person of mixed Romani and non-Romani blood), I don’t get to see my Romani family much since they’re in Canada. Only my non-Romani family lives near me.
What’s the history of Roma (Gypsies)?
I’ll put a detailed account of the Roma Gipsies here.
History of the Roma Gypsies
The time was around 1000 A.D. when the place was the Indian region of Rajasthan and Punjab. In those times, Islamic invaders had started ravaging the western borders of India, and the atrocities committed by the Muslim invaders were terrible. The people staying in those regions after defeat were moved(or captured as enslaved people) towards the West, and thus, a migration began, which moved farther and farther into the West. However, some suggest that migration began around 500 A.D.
These people belonging to India reached Europe through constant migration at around 1200 A.D. and are now called the Roma Gypsies.
Map of the Gypsy Migration:
So, the Roma Gypsies can be very well called the first NRIs(Non-Residential Indians) to reach Europe.
The latest DNA among various Roma communities and Linguistic analysis strongly prove that they are definitely of Indian origin.
The language of the Roma Gypsies shares similarities with Hindi, Punjabi and Marwari. The writing style, lexicons and phonetics are strikingly similar to Indian languages.
Culture and Traditions of the Roma Gypsies
Even after 1000 years, Indian or Hindu culture still influences Roma Gypsies. They have large extended families, and the Head of the family is generally the oldest man. There are arranged marriages, and early-age marriage is prevalent among the Roma people.
Most of the Roma Gypsies adopted the local religions and now follow Islam and Christianity, but there are a few of them who still follow Hinduism.
The Christian Romas have a local deity called “Kale Sara”, which is analogous to Kali Mata(Mother), a divine deity in Hinduism.
The names of the different Roma Gypsy groups have a hint of Indianness in them. There are groups named Kalderash, Machvaya, Boyash, Lovari(May be Lohari), Modyar, Xoraxai, Lautari, Sinti(Maybe from the Indian Sindhi community), Kale, etc.
Below is a Gypsy woman whose features are very strikingly Indian.
Music of the Roma Gypsies
Music is the most significant contribution given by the Roma people. They influenced many classical European musicians, such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. Also, a few music styles were influenced by Roma Music.
There is a legend about the Music and artistic tradition of the Gypsies in the Shahnama(Persian poetry) and is also told by authors of this age that a Sasanian king had asked a king in India to send musicians and artists to his kingdom which comprised of Europe so that his people can enjoy Music. The Indian king sent 10,000 such people, and from there, the Music originated.
The Music and dance of the Roma people have their roots in India.
I want to highlight one of the Romas’ styles, the Flamenco dance. If one observes Flamenco dancing carefully, one can keep the similarities between it and Bharatnatyam. Flamenco is a loose form of Bharatnatyam and Kathak. Similarities can also be found in Rajasthani folk dance.
The articles below give many details:
A Mosaic of Flamenco and Indian Classical Dance by Rajika Puri
Flamenco Comes Home to India
Below are a few images depicting similarities:
Persecution of the Roma Gypsies
There are also sad stories related to the Roma people.
The primary reason for the persecution could be due to the practice of slavery, which was prevalent in Europe in medieval times. Roma Gypsy were brought in as enslaved people, and their status never changed.
The Roma Gipsy persecution can also be because they brought the traditions and culture of India along with them, which can be strange by European standards, and they were considered lowly thieves, so they were ostracized(This is my viewpoint).
However, they were heavily persecuted throughout their history and, in medieval times, were hanged in many countries of Europe. The women and children were drowned and banished. The murder of the Roma people was not considered a killing in some countries in medieval times.
In the present times, too, in the Czech Republic, the Romani women were forcefully sterilized to control the Romani population. It started in the 1980s.
During the Nazi holocaust, as many as 1.5 million Roma Gypsies were killed in concentration camps.
Even today, they live a nomadic life and have no permanent settlement. The children have difficulty getting an education, and there is regular discrimination against the Roma people. A few nations have forcibly evicted them and lead an uncertain life.
There are around 12 million Roma people worldwide, and they have formed the World Romani Congress.
The European Union has raised concerns over this issue, and Human rights activists have raised their voices against it, but a lot has to be done regarding this discrimination against them.
The best thing is that the Government of India funded the formation of this congress, and as many as 20 countries attended it in 1971. The World Council of churches also supported it.
The Romani Flag with a 16-spoke Chakra.
Below is a video of a Roma Gypsy lady from Kosovo who visited India to find her roots.
Sources:
1. Personal Experience with a Roma Gypsy in Germany(Anna – The Roma Gypsy: A lost Indian), and I read the term Roma Gypsy for the first time on Ajit Vadakayil Blogspot.
2. Images from Google Images.
3. Major content is taken from Wikipedia.
What is it like to be an American gipsy?
As a Romani who lives in America (3rd generation), it’s pretty ordinary. I haven’t seen the show, granted, but with reality TV. Being sensationalist, they’re examining a small group of what look to be rather exciting people and are exploiting that for all it’s worth, or that’s how it appears to me.
Romani communities in larger cities in the U.S. are very cohesive, but those of us who don’t live in those geographically tend to be family-oriented. We follow traditions and cultural norms (adapted to the modern age), but we have jobs, drive cars and do pretty much everything other people do.
My wedding was low-key. It was family and close friends. My dress was great, but I got it from the Newport News catalogue.
I’m from a small town in the northern U.S.; my father is a retired teacher; my mother was a horse breeder but now runs a small racehorse rescue. My brother’s in the Army, and I’m a professional artist. My grandfather was a mailman, and my grandmother was a housewife.
I might dress a bit more modestly than other women my age (I like my jeans on the baggy side and to be able to bend over without my shirt riding up), but from what I know of my family and friends, we’re all pretty similar, which is to say, ordinary.
Most of us pass amongst the general population, and people assume we’re of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, West Asian, Hispanic or Native American descent, and unless asked outright, we generally don’t talk about it. Nothing brings on the silly questions and requests for palm readings faster than saying, ‘I’m ethnic Gypsy’.
What is it like to meet a gipsy?
In Russia, there are so many in almost every city. I have met them many times in my life. My school was in the city centre, the central spot for gipsies. They sell stolen gold there and steal money and jewellery from people where they usually live. Whenever I met them, I tried to avoid them and choose another route rather than where they were standing. Especially as a kid, I was afraid of them.
I’ve heard stories that they steal small children and that they hypnotize people. Once it happened, I was going to school by bus, and a gipsy was looking at me at the end. Knowing that you should never do it, I felt strange and numb as I looked at her. I stood up from my seat and started coming towards her, holding my mobile in one hand. I was moving, but I felt like I couldn’t move freely and was very stiff. I was about to give her my money and mobile, but at the last moment, I turned and left the bus, using all my conscience and willow. I still remember it and don’t look into their eyes anymore, but I am not afraid of them either. God helps those who help themselves;)
What does it mean to be American Romani or Gypsy?
Romani/Roma is an ethnicity of people with populations worldwide, most likely from South Asia, though mainly in Europe.
They have traditionally been semi-nomadic people, even up to modern times, who have generally avoided assimilation.
Gipsy is a term considered derogatory by many, used to refer to Roma people due to an old misconception that they were Egyptian. Still, that term, too, has been re-appropriated for other nomadic groups and individuals.
An American Romani thus is a US citizen of Romani decent, probably related to Roma people who immigrated from Eastern Europe.
Are the Roma considered to be white?
No, the Roma are not white. They are descendants of Dalits or untouchables from the Indian Subcontinent in modern-day India or Pakistan. Most, particularly in Eastern Europe, retain their South Asian features and look very different from Europeans. Some are heavily mixed with Europeans, although they still have some South Asian features.
It is similar to the case of Jews. Some are heavily mixed with Europeans and look no different from Europeans. Both Roma and Jews originated outside of Europe, and they are racially alien to Europeans. One was developed in the Levant, and the other was created in India/Pakistan. Neither are white, regardless of how some look.
(Gypsy woman) The girl below looks more like a light Indian than an average European
Why did the Romani people leave India?
A multitude of different sources, including medieval texts, suggest that modern-day Romani gipsies migrated from northern and northwestern India to the European continent somewhere between the 12th and 16th centuries. It is a vague timeline since there is no “hard” evidence to suggest exactly when or why they migrated.
Tracking down these details regarding the Romani is even more difficult when you understand that they do not keep written or oral records of their own histories. Plus, they are traditionally very secretive and wary of sharing information or forming relationships with persons they consider “outsiders” (i.e. non-gypsies).
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
The connection between the Romani and Indian people was first made when modern linguists realized that the language spoken by modern Romani gipsies is descended from Indo-Aryan dialect languages such as Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, and Marwari. The Romani language shares most of its basic lexicon and pronunciation with these languages and the Indian particularity for cleanliness regarding the human body.
This correlation is corroborated by genetic solid DNA evidence, which proves that Romani people are, in fact, of Indian descent. This also explains why the core Romani population (i.e. those which have not had significant genetic mixing with the native European population) share a lot of the physical traits which are common among the native Indian population, such as similar skin colour, facial features, hair, colour and type, cultural similarities, etc.
While no one knows exactly why or when the Romani people left India to find their way to Europe eventually, there is an explanation of sorts that has been retold for centuries in “epic poem” fashion across India and the Middle East, which uses semi-mythological means to describe the origin of the Romani people.
Known as the Shahnameh legend – it goes like this;
The Sasanian King, known as Bahram, learned that people experiencing poverty in his realm could not afford to stop working to enjoy the finer things in life, like the ability to sit and enjoy good music. He was distraught over this, so he asked the King of India to send him ten thousand flute players.
When the musicians arrived in Bahram’s kingdom, he gave them each an ox, a donkey, and a wagon-load of wheat so they could live off of his land and play music for his peasantry – but, as you can probably imagine, that is not what happened.
Those pesky flute players ate the oxen and wheat in just one year instead of learning to work and grow their own food. They returned to King Bahram starved to the bones, begging at his feet for more food. The King was so enraged with their actions that he refused them anything more and demanded they leave his realm to roam the Earth and starve perpetually.
Thus, they became the Romani or “traveller people”.
Best wishes,
Why is there so much hate towards gipsies/travellers? Is it called for?
There is no hate towards gipsies and their kind.
There areare rejections towards people with no moral behaviour, hygiene, or civilized way of living.
When in Rome (not Roma), do what the Romans do.
I do hope I made myself clear.
Can someone become a Romani Gypsy?
No. It is an ethnic group, so just as you can’t become Caucasian or ethnically Japanese, you wouldn’t become Romany. However, you could marry into it and then have multi-ethnic children. This is relatively rare because we tend to be insular, but it does happen. My husband is non-Rom.
Many Romany groups and still more fall under the “gypsy” umbrella (beware, the word is considered offensive to most). Each group will have norms and standards for accepting outsiders, with some very inclusive, well-integrated families welcoming these marriages and others doing everything they can to prevent it.
Are Roma people Dravidians racially?
The Romani people (or Roma) are racially Caucasoid (West-Eurasian related), same as most Dravidians.
Before I write about the Romani people, here is some short information about the Dravidians, their origin and history:
Proto-Dravidians:
The proto-Dravidians are genetically and linguistically linked to farmers and gatherers from modern-day southern Iran who migrated into South Asia about 10,000 years ago. These agriculturalists are known as the “Zagros mountain population”. They were a neolithic population in Iran and practised early agriculture.
The exact population is also likely linked to the later Elamites, which created one of the oldest civilizations in the Middle East. They also influenced the BMAC culture in modern-day Turkmenistan/Tajikistan before the Indo-Aryan migration there.
In India, they essentially replaced the local hunter-gatherers (Andamanese-related tribes). Although some mixing happened between male Dravidians and female locals, the average Zagros ancestry was 80% to 98% in the IVC. This is called the “Dravidification of India”.
(Today, AASI (Andamanese-related) ancestry ranges from 0% to 30% on average, while some Adivasi tribals, such as the Paniya, can have 60%.)
The ancient Dravidians created the Indus Valley culture (IVC). DNA analyses show that most ancient Indus Valley samples have an average of 89% to 98% Iranian farmer-related DNA. Narasimhan et al. 2018 and 2019 note that the “Iranian” or “Zagros farmers” are linked to the Dravidians and formed the predominant central ancestry of the Indus civilization and modern South Asia.
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
Additionally, Austroasiatic groups arrived from Southeast Asia and brought the East Asian-related ancestry into India. Austroasiatic tribes, related to Vietnamese or Mon, lived in parts of the Gangetic area before the Indo-Aryan migration. There are Austroasiatic loanwords in Dravidian and Indo-Aryan, and some linguists suggest that they migrated to the IVC and coexisted with other groups.
Over time, the Indo-Aryans started to migrate from Central Asia into parts of India, contributing additional ancestry, and local populations partially adopted their language.
All these results in modern South Asians, with the “Dravidian ancestry” → Zagros mountain population ancestry, being the majority, followed by Yamnaya/Steppe (Indo-Aryan) and then AASI and East Asian-related ancestry.
Modern distribution of West-Eurasian related (Caucasoid) ancestry (red):
Caucasoid/West-Eurasian ancestry range from 60% to 100%, depending on the group.
Now, about the Romani people and their history and proposed origin:
The Romani people, also known as Domari or Lom(ari), can trace their origins back to ancient India. Today, it is suggested that they lived in a northwestern or central Indian region.
The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in India; it is an Indo-Aryan language and is close to several Rajasthani languages (such as Marwari). Other evidence points out that Romani belong to the Central dialectal zone of Hindustani.
In December 2012, additional findings confirmed that the Roma came from a single group that left northwestern India about 1,500 years ago. As mentioned, several Dravidian groups adopted Indo-Aryan languages, while several tribal groups adopted Dravidian languages.
They may have emerged from the modern Indian state of Rajasthan, migrating to the northwest (the Punjab region, Sindh and Baluchistan of the Indian subcontinent) around 250 BC.
Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed to have occurred in about AD 500. It has also been suggested that emigration from India may have happened in the context of the raids by Mahmud of Ghazni. As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire and then into the rest of Europe.
What does it mean to be a gypsy?
The author Ralph Lilley Turner theorized a central Indian origin of Romani followed by a migration to Northwest India. It shares several ancient isoglosses with Central Indo-Aryan languages about realizing some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan.
This lends further credence to its sharing precisely the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina by adopting oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages, thus indicating that the proto-Romani did not leave the Indian subcontinent until late in the second half of the first millennium.
The leading reason Romani are linked to Dravidians is the paternal lineage H. H (and L), familiar among Dravidian speakers but also in other West Asians and some (mostly Neolithic) Europeans.
As we know, many ethnic Dravidians were “Indo-Aryanized” and adopted their language. Thus, Romani, an ethnic Dravidian group, speak an Indo-Aryan language. Nevertheless, racially Dravidians and Indo-Aryans are both Caucasoid and, therefore, not crucial for the question itself. Romani are predominantly Caucasoid. (Dravidian is an ethnolinguistic group, not a race.)
Haplogroup L originated in modern West Asia (most likely Iran):
(Haplogroup L was most common in ancient Iran and is now widespread in Europe, West Asia, India, and Central Asia.)
Haplogroup H originated also in West Asia (but more likely in the Levant or Anatolia):
(Interestingly, haplogroup H was also common in ancient Europeans and is still in small percentages.)
Haplogroup H is the predominant lineage among the Romani people. However, note that haplogroups can not say much about ancestry. Only autosomal DNA analyses can do that.
A recent genetic study using autosomal DNA published in the “European Journal of Human Genetics” in Nature (2019) showed that most populations of South Asia, Western Asia, Northern Africa, Europe and parts of Central Asia are closely related. These groups can be distinguished from most populations in East Asia or Western Africa and Africans south of the Sahara.
Conclusion:
Ancient Dravidians were a Caucasoid (West-Eurasian) population and are still today predominantly Caucasoid. Some non-Dravidian tribals adopted the Dravidian languages.
Romani people were most likely descendants of Dravidians who adopted Indo-Aryan languages.
Thank you for reading! 🙂