Roma in Slovakia
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|
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (2011 census: 105,738) | |
| Languages | |
| Romani and other languages (Slovak, Hungarian) | |
| Religion | |
| Catholicism · Calvinism · Pentecostalism · Islam |
According to the last census from 2011, there were 105,738 persons counted as Romani people in Slovakia, or 2.0% of the population. The Romani are the second-largest ethnic minority in Slovakia after Hungarians and they live mostly in the eastern parts of the country.
Other sources claim that 7.5% of inhabitants of Slovakia (402,840 people) may be Romani.
The Romani people originate from the Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab.
The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in 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 Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali.
Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group. According to a genetic study in 2012, the ancestors of present scheduled tribes and scheduled caste populations of northern India, traditionally referred to collectively as the Ḍoma, 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.
The first record of sightings of small groups of Romani within the area of present-day Slovakia are from 1322 AD, when the region was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Major waves of Romani nomads were recorded from 1417 onwards. In 1423 they received a decree from the Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxemburg at Szepes Castle, granting them Europe-wide right of passage and the right to settle. They proved to be useful metal workers for the royal armies fighting the Turks.
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