The Romani, also known as the Roma or, pejoratively, Gypsies, are a nomadic ethnic group of Indian origin who mostly live in Europe and the Americas. The Romani are descended from the untouchable dalit caste of India, and their ancestors come from Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, and Sindh. The Romani society is known for placing a high value on the extended family, with men and women often marrying as children, and unmarried women being forced to maintain their virginity. The Romani do not follow any single religion; Christianity, Islam, and their original faith of Hinduism are major beliefs, while others are irreligious, or practice their own faiths. In 2017, there world Romani population was between 2,000,000 and 20,000,000 people.
There are various legends about the reason for their migration westward, with some claiming that their first migration occurred in 500 AD, other claiming that Mahmud of Ghazni's invasions of India caused Indian refugees to flee towards the Byzantine Empire and away from the war-torn Indus Valley region. The first Romani reached the Balkans in the 1100s, and they were persecuted in Europe. They were expelled from Milan in 1493, France in 1504, Catalonia in 1512, Sweden in 1525, England in 1530, and Denmark in 1536. At this time, they acquired the pejorative name "Gypsy", which came from a misconception that they had originated in Egypt. They were accused of stealing, as they were a migratory nomadic people which needed to sustain itself. Romani persecution in Europe would culminate in the Holocaust during the 1940s, during which Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers carried out a systematic genocide against Romani people across Nazi-occupied Europe. Up to 500,000 Romani were killed during the Porajmos, making up as much as 50% of the Romani population on the continent.
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