One can merely speculate about early Roma history. It has not yet been explained if they were Untouchables subsisting on the margins of Indian society almost two millennia ago, or if they represented a cross-section of Hindu castes or even if they came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. What we do know is that they left their home on the sub-continent in several waves, starting in the 5^th century A.D, a mass-exodus taking place in the 11^th century. It is thought that the Muslim invasion of India might have set this latter movement off. They travelled through Persia to Minor Asia and so entered the Byzantine Empire, from where the majority set off towards Greece at the start of the 14^th century. Their route can be pieced together from loan-words found in Europe's Romanes dialects: many show the influence of Greek, Kurdish or Persian. After Roma had spent roughly a century in Greece, they moved on and had spread through the rest of Europe by the end of the 15^th century.

Roma were free in Moorish Spain, something that changed after the fall of Granada and the expulsion of the Moors in 1492. Between 1493 and 1783, more than a dozen laws were promulgated forbidding Roma dress, language and customs in an effort to force integration. Repression in France dates back to 1539, when Roma were driven out of Paris. In 1563, they were forced to leave England under pain of death. During the 17^th century many had to submit to serfdom in Romania and Hungary – in Romania they remained serfs until 1855.

In contrast, Russian Roma were barely distinguishable from the mass of impoverished peasants. During 500 years of Ottoman rule in the Balkans, Roma who converted to Islam enjoyed privileges; in some early Yugoslav republics they were on the same footing as other minorities.

Discrimination against Roma goes on even to-day in most European states. Persecution reached its 20^th century crescendo in Nazi Germany, when 600,000-800,000 Roma were murdered in concentration camps.

Given that Roma are found in every corner of the earth, they have no single culture or social organisation. However, some features are visible: a strong sense of community, adherence to traditions and distance from the world around them. Contact with this world is held to be "impure", something which perhaps goes back to the religious beliefs of their Hindu ancestors. Another binding feature is their universal language, Romanes, made up of a myriad of dialects but all of which belong to the Indian branch of the Indo-European languages. Most nations speak a Romanes dialect; others speak dialects of the local language, albeit one full of words from Romanes.

The most obvious differences between the various nations are religious, given that each adopted the religion of the territory they settled in. In this way, there are Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish Roma, though they do not usually come into contact with church organisations: religious ceremonies are performed within the group and in accordance with its own traditions.

Each nation divides itself into clans, comprising a collection of families with the same ancestry or origins

Family is extremly important among Roma. Elders command great respect and are revered as authority figures. Marriages are usually arranged, often with the wish to ally one family with another. Sexual mores are strict; an unmarried woman is often chaperoned in public. Many groups have a dowry tradition, the groom's family paying the bride's as compensations for the loss of their daughter.

One important institution is a court which presides over quarrels, legal disputes and questions of tradition. Roma are relatively autonomous within that formal social structures of the society in which they live because their own communities carry out the functions of these formal structures. Roma are involved in such handicrafts as jewellery-making and metalwork, as well as basket-weaving, carpentry and working with leather.

Roma are best integrated, culturally and economically, in the less industrialised regions of the Balkans and the Middle East. The present economic hardships in former Communist states has also brought suffering to Roma. They are under immense pressure to abandon their traditions in almost every country. In Britain for example, they have for years been fighting legal measures preventing them from setting up camps. There is however the hope that Roma culture will survive, thanks to a renewed interest in their common origins, language and traditions.