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Exploring the gypsies’ world

NEW DELHI: A three-day festival exploring the Indian origins of Europe’s Roma gypsy community opened at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) here on Thursday.

“The pristine roots of Indian culture are best preserved abroad. Studying diaspora cultures allows us to look at India in the original,” said IGNCA Trustee Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty at a press conference. Ten million Roma gypsies living across Europe and Central Asia are thought to have originated in Rajasthan and Punjab around the 11th Century. “Gypsies have suffered persecution in Europe for centuries, but are actually highly cultured,” said Shyam Singh Shashi, a prominent Indian social anthropologist who will help curate the festival. “Forty per cent of words used by the Roma come from Sanskrit.” The festival will focus on similarities between Roma and Indian cultures, while exploring the experiences of other Indian diaspora communities.

Highlights of the festival will include a concert by Czech Roma musician Simona Jovic and screening of Satish Rai’s hard-hitting film on indentured labourers to Fiji. “Coming to India has closed a circle begun by my ancestors when they left,” said Shoshi Israeli, a Roma who will dance Flamenco accompanied by a sitar and a percussion, adding, “I have not had to talk to the Indian musicians [because] our music shares a common language.” The festival has been organised by IGNCA’s Diaspora Programme, set up 12 months ago to foster cultural exchange between India and its emigrants, ancient and modern. The IGNCA is home to the largest collection of books and films on India’s diaspora and offers Indians abroad assistance in tracing their ancestors.

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