Author: Priya Solomon
Publication:
Date: April 8, 2001
The Sangh Parivar has decided to
take Hinduism to the distant shores. Lord Ram's children are to be reclaimed.
A two-day conference being held in the capital from Sunday at the National
Museum, has white-skinned people claiming to originally belong to India,
speaking a language somewhat similar to Hindi, and claiming to be good
fortune tellers interacting with the people of their ancestral homeland.
After a brief exposition of the
Roma culture in the first ever Dharam Prasar Yatra, a journey to promote
Hindutva would be taken to 60 cities in 40 countries, including the holy
cities of Haridwar, Rishikesh, Kurukshetra and Chandigarh.
Most of the Roma of Europe and
Americas now believe that they are originally from India who migrated from
their forefathers' land to the foreign countries. According to the secretary
general of the Pratishthan and a gypso-anthroplogist Shyam Singh Shashi,
the word "Roma" has been derived from Roma- which refers to one who pervades
all or roams about.
They are more than 20 million in
number and now lead a settled or semi-nomadic life. It is an established
fact now that they are from erstwhile greater Punjab, Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra, Dr Shyam Singh Shashi told TheNewspapertoday.
According to Dr Shashi who has himself
written more than 200 books on the subject, most of the Roma gypsies claim
to be descendants of Brahmins, Rajputs and Jats. And not without reason
too, for their women are good palmists and fortunetellers and carry it
as part of their tradition.
Senior VHP leader Ashok Singhal
attended the inaugural function among others. In his inaugural note, the
VHP international president B.K. Modi read out messages from Prime minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee, home minister L.K. Advani and the minister of tourism
Anant Kumar.
VHP will also seek to reinforce
the notion that Rama was a real flesh and blood figure in history and not
just a mythological character. "We in this country have forgotten and misrepresented
our history and treat Rama and Krishna as mythological characters whereas
these gypsies, who migrated 700 years back, still call themselves "Romas"
(children of Ram) and have gathered enough evidence to prove that Ram had
actually lived, Modi said.
The conference, organised along
with a sister concern of the Sangh, Hindu Heritage Pratishthan, saw delegates
from France, Yugoslavia, Czech Republic, Belgium and Romania.
The theme of the conference is "Roma
culture and heritage: Journey to Roots," where discussions would centre
around the Roma culture and heritage, its people and human rights, Romani
language, literature and religion.
The delegation is also planning
to meet Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and culture minister Ananth
Kumar and convey to them their desire of having some concrete proposals
for closer interaction between the Romanis and people from their original
homeland.
The Hindu Prathisthan which claims
to be an independent body has on its board of trustees - VHP's Vishnu Hari
Dalmiya, Acharya Giriraj Kishore and Govind Hari Singhania among others.
The Prathisthan holds regular seminars and programmes to increase the reach
of Hindu culture and religion abroad. In November last year they organised
a seminar on the banks of the Ganga in which more than 100 students from
32 countries of Europe, America, Africa and Asia studying in India participated.
rooting for original home
PRIYA SOLOMON
New Delhi, April 08, 22:47