The Roma’s origin in the Indian subcontinent is established above all by language: Romani belongs to the Indo-Aryan family and shares deep structure and vocabulary with the languages of north-western India. Scholars place the ancestral departure roughly a thousand years ago.
Genetic studies of Roma populations are consistent with this linguistic picture, pointing to South Asian ancestry.
Sources & further reading: Wikipedia (Origin of the Romani people) and the Council of Europe history factsheets.
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