Hyderabad scientists trace European gypsies to north-western India

A team of scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here claimed to have cracked the mystery surrounding the origin and migration of the “Roma (gypsy)” population.

The team, led by Kumarasamy Thangaraj from CCMB, said: “The aboriginal scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, also known as Domas or dalits, from north-western India are the likely ancestors of European gypsies.” The founder of the European Roma was traced using Y chromosome genetic signatures.

The study, published in the recent issue of online journal “PLoS one,” estimated that the Roma founders left India 1,405 years ago.

Although linguistic and genetic studies on the European Roma have traced their roots to Eurasia, the exact parental population group and time of dispersal remained disputed. The study assumes significance in the absence of archaeological evidence and documentation on Romas.

According to Thangaraj, Y chromosome is passed over from the father to the son. Hence, all males of a family or a group who evolved from a single founder male will possess the same Y chromosome.

Based on genetic signatures on the Y chromosome, every male can be assigned a specific group (haplogroup).
 
Thus lineage can be traced using these signatures. In this case, the scientists studied approximately 10,000 males from around the world, including 7,000 from 205 ethnic groups in the country.

“We have compared the worldwide phylogeographical data of the Indian H1a1a haplotypes with the Romas and concluded that they are the aboriginal scheduled tribes and scheduled caste populations of north-western India,” said Thangaraj.