Gypsies Essay

Historically Gypsies came from India sometime in the first millennium, and the first significant groups arrived in Hungary in the 14th and 15th centuries. Their Indian descent still shows in their dark skin; their centuries of experience of exclusion and persecution is reflected in their collective unconsciousness.
In 14th century urban centres began to develop by involving Gypsy labour force. People who were active in horse-trading and fortune-telling, but also worked as blacksmiths and gun makers were known as Gypsies. They were not entirely free in Eastern Europe, freedom of movement was only allowed within a certain territory . Gypsies were not part of village society, but nevertheless enjoyed some protection from noble landowners. They lived on the margins of society, which was often reflected in the jobs they held, but they had their own place.
The ‘Gypsy problem’ was addressed for the first time in 18th century in the Empire under the regulations of the absolutist monarchs Maria Theresia and Joseph II., whose aim was to abolish Gypsies as a group, and to transform them completely. The idea of transformation came with the atmosphere of the Enlightenment: there was a strong belief that people could be changed through education. Gypsies were to become tax paying citizens of the Empire with fixed jobs – in the same way as serfs. Their children were taken away from them and given to Hungarian peasants (not yet called institutional care then, but this most brutal form of state interference is still a threat to Gypsy families); horsekeeping, traditional clothing, and the use of the Roma language (i.e. the major pillars of their culture and livelihood) were prohibited.
From the 18th century the Gypsy issue became a bureaucratic, ...

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...ossible as the new ideology considered it a form of profiteering. Collectivisation of land meant that agricultural day-labour also became impossible for most Gypsies. In spite of the fact that before the war a quarter of agricultural day-labourers were Gypsies, and as such would have had a right to land, they were left out of the 1945 land reform. In the new era Gypsies were officially considered citizens with rights equal to anyone else’s. Paradoxically the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party introduced a resolution in 1961 on the ‘Gypsy problem’, considering that their situation was worse than at the end of the 19th century. According to this resolution Gypsies cannot be considered a national minority (just as in other Eastern European countries), because they do not meet the criteria for being a ‘nationality’ – lacking a motherland, a common language and history.