Roma in the Czech Republic

Romani people (Czech: Romové, commonly known as Gypsies Czech: Cikáni) in the Czech Republic constitute a minority. According to the last census from 2011, the Romani nationality was reported by the total of 13,150 inhabitants. Only a small part of them filled in only the Romani nationality (5 199). Most of them stated the Romani nationality in combination with another one, for example, the Romani and Czech, the Romani and Moravian and the like (7,951). In the 2001 Census, 11,746 people reported the Romani nationality – at that time it was 0.1% of those claiming some nationality. In 2011, the result 13,150 is 0.2% of those, who reported some nationality.

However, at the same census, 40 370 inhabitants reported Romani language as their language.

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.

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