Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies) - Scarecrow Press

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xlii • INTRODUCTION After 1945 in both eastern and western Europe, a return to nomadism was discouraged, if not suppressed, though many Yugoslav Romanies came west as migrant workers. In western Europe, the supply of empty land for caravans has diminished. The increasing speed of motor traffic makes living on the side of the road, whether in a horse-drawn wagon or a truck-drawn caravan, too dangerous. Gypsies were largely seen as a social problem to be integrated into the wider community. A term often used was “resettlement,” although most of the nomads concerned had never been settled in the first place. Pressure from central governments to set up camp sites was largely ignored by the local authorities, the Netherlands being an exception. In the east, they were one more minority likely to cause trouble to the monocultural states created by communism. Here, where several million Gypsies lived under totalitarian rule, they were not allowed to form organizations, and their language was again suppressed. In most countries of eastern Europe, the Gypsy population was very large, and policies were evolved to meet the challenge of this large unassimilated minority. In the case of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin had decided that the Gypsies had no land base and therefore could not be a nation, and their earlier status as a nationality was abolished. Assimilated Gypsies were encouraged to change the “nationality” in their passports to that of the majority and answer the census questions, for example, as Serbs or Russians. The few activists were sent into internal exile or imprisoned, such as the parliamentarian Shakir Pashov in Bulgaria. In eastern Europe, too, the small numbers of nomads were forcibly prevented from traveling by laws and by measures such as shooting or confiscating their horses and removing the wheels from their caravans. Here and there, however, Gypsy national sentiment was still alive. In Czechoslovakia, organizations were formed and began to demand their rights—a demand temporarily quashed after Soviet troops entered Prague in 1968. In the west after the end of World War II, the communities were smaller in number and largely continued or returned to being nomadic. But it was in the west that the foundations of an international Gypsy organization could be formed. The real beginning was the committee known as the Comité International Tzigane, set up in Paris by Vanko Rouda. This body organized the first World Romany Congress, and since then further international congresses have been held by the In
INTRODUCTION • xliii ternational Romani Union. The fourth Congress in Warsaw in 1990— as the political changes in eastern Europe began—saw the attendance for the first time of delegations or individuals from Romania, the Soviet Union, and even Albania. The fifth Congress was held in Prague with considerable support from the Czech government and international organizations. The emergence of the rival Romani National Congress has, however, not helped the Gypsies to present a united front for their aspirations. The idea of Romanestan, a homeland for the Gypsies, emerged in Poland in the 1930s, clearly influenced by the Zionist movement. Since 1945 this has not been seriously considered, though many intellectuals are fostering the link with the “Motherland” of India. Two festivals have been held in Chandigarh (Punjab) to which Gypsy intellectuals and musicians were invited from Europe. Some Gypsy writers have introduced Hindi and Sanskrit words into their poetry. RECENT POLITICAL CHANGES IN EASTERN EUROPE With the fall of the totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe came a new freedom to form organizations. The new opportunities for travel both from and to Eastern Europe have enabled the holding of international Gypsy festivals such as those in Bratislava and Gorzow, in addition to formal conferences. Newspapers opened as fast as pavement cafés. The Gypsies who had never completely forgotten how to trade privately were the first to set up small businesses. Their ability to survive the changes better than their compatriots led to jealousy and an outbreak of anti-Gypsy violence in Poland. The road to capitalism was not as smooth as had been expected, and with no Jews to act as scapegoats, the population of Eastern Europe in general turned to the Gypsies as the reason for their real or imagined troubles. Freedom also meant freedom for right-wing racists to organize, and this movement was facilitated by a falling away of the control previously exercised by the police. As early as January 1990, a crowd of 700 Romanians and ethnic Hungarians attacked the Gypsy quarter in Turu Lung, Romania. Thirty-six of the 42 houses belonging to Romanies were set on fire and destroyed. Two similar incidents took place that year in Romania, resulting in the death of four Gypsies. In September
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