Romanistan

Flag of the Romani people, a national symbol of the Romani

Romanistan, Romastan or Romanestan is the name of a proposed country for the Romani people.[1]

Several times during the 1920s and 1930s, ideas of an autonomous Romani state within the USSR were raised. Such efforts were dropped by 1936-7.[2] In the early 1950s, Roma leaders petitioned the United Nations for the creation of their own state, but their petition was rejected.[1] There was a proposal briefly considered by Josep Tito, leader of Socialist Yugoslavia to create an autonomous region for the Romani based in North Macedonia but the idea never materialized.[3] Creation of such a state was also reportedly suggested by the leaders of Romani party in Hungary and party in North Macedonia known as the Party for the Complete Emancipation of Roma in the early 1990s at Šuto Orizari.[4]

Given the origin of the Romani people in medieval India, Romanistan has been envisaged as being within the borders of India.[5]

  1. ^ a b James Minahan (1996). Nations Without States: A Historical Dictionary of Contemporary National Movements. Greenwood Press. p. 464. ISBN 978-0-313-28354-3.
  2. ^ O'Keeffe, Brigid. "The Roma homeland that never was".
  3. ^ Crowe, David M. (2000). "Muslim Roma in the Balkans". Nationalities Papers. 28 (1): 93–128. doi:10.1080/00905990050002470. ISSN 0090-5992.
  4. ^ Charles Vance; Yongsun Paik (2006). Managing a Global Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities in International Human Resource Management. M.E. Sharpe. p. 760. ISBN 978-0-7656-2016-3.
  5. ^ Mieder, Wolfgang; Scrase, David (2001). Reflections on the Holocaust: Festschrift for Raul Hilberg on His Seventy-fifth Birthday. Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-9707237-4-1.