The first time I realised that gypsies were not just characters in a film but real people was as a child when my father, an orthopaedic surgeon, told us of a gypsy patient he treated. He was of Iranian origin and was told that his leg would be amputated. He came to my father to see if it could be saved. The reason caught our imagination: in gypsy law, if a man was disabled, another could take his wife, as it meant he could no longer take care of her. His wife was beautiful and his cousin, who accompanied him, was keen to benefit from his amputation and marry his wife. My father managed to save his leg and the gypsy gave him a blanket with a huge tiger printed on it.

The next time I met a gypsy was more recent: he was from England and had come to understand truck art so he could paint a truck in London. As we shared experiences, I discovered many words in Romany — the language gypsies speak — were similar to Urdu. For instance, andre: inside; angustri: ring; bal: hair; baro/barri: large; bakht: luck; bebee: aunt; kak: uncle; chor: thief; chura; knife; kon: who; mang: beg; nevo: new; ooprey: up; pi: to drink; poker: to ask; rarti: night; sov: sleep; wuzho: clean; zor: strength and many more.

The colourful scarf that is worn on the head or around the waist, which some Baloch men also wear on one shoulder, is called a diklo, from dekh lo (he is seeing). The cheent pattern is common to Central Asia, Russia and rural South Asia.

The word gypsy is a derivative of gipcyan. In Europe people mistakenly felt that their origin was in Egypt. Genome mapping has confirmed that gypsies — or Romani as they prefer to be called — originate in North-western India. A series of migrations, whose reasons are still being debated, took them westwards around the seventh century into the Middle East, Europe in the 12th century and, in the 19th century, to the Americas — especially the United States and Brazil. They rarely assimilate into the host countries and have faced mistrust and persecution. They were deported during the Spanish Inquisition — nearly two million rounded up and sent to gas chambers or shot by the Nazis, banned from entering the US after the 19th century, endured forced sterilisation in Czechoslovakia and continue to be marginalised, or perhaps self-marginalised, in most countries.

Gypsy is not just a tribe but a concept. A gypsy soul is seen as free-spirited, outside the confines of society, fiercely independent, leading a life of unpredictable adventure.

There is a difference between nomadic tribes such as the Powinda of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Gujjar Himalayan gypsies and the Roma gypsies. In Pakistan, there are 22,000 Arhagar Romany-speaking gypsies. The Dom, the other major tribe of gypsies, is a small community in Gilgit-Baltistan. The gypsies have a strong and closely guarded cultural code and set of beliefs, which seem to exclude non-Romany people, dismissively called Gudjo.

In Europe, they were once associated with superstitions, magic, fortune-telling, music and dance. Today, they are mostly a poor community living by their wits. Some have broken into mainstream society. Their musical heritage has influenced jazz, bolero and flamenco music, as well as classical composers including Franz Liszt. Actors Michael Caine and Charlie Chaplin were born in a gypsy caravan; Yul Brynner, Rita Hayworth, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren and Tracey Ullman have gypsy roots. The artist Pablo Picasso was proud of his gypsy heritage. Django Reinhardt introduced a gypsy sound to jazz. The tennis star Nastase and a number of other sports persons, writers and musicians have gypsy origins.

They have a distinctive visual culture: traditionally the women wear full skirts similar to ghagras, colourful shawls and diklo scarfs trimmed with coins. The men wear colourful neckerchiefs and amulets similar to the taaveez of South Asia, they cover their heads with scarves or hats,and wear loose trousers. Gypsy jewellery is very similar to rural South Asian and the Middle Eastern necklaces and earrings. This flamboyant style is also seen in the decoration of their horse-driven mobile homes or vardo, which bear resemblance to decorated transport in Pakistan. Richer gypsies live in houses with colourful, ornately decorated interiors. Today European gypsies live in plain modern caravans. Ironically, the modern caravan (from the Persian word Karvan) designed in 1885 by Dr W. Gordon-Stables, called “the Wanderer”, was inspired by the gypsy lifestyle.

Gypsy is not just a tribe but a concept. A gypsy soul is seen as free-spirited, outside the confines of society, fiercely independent, leading a life of unpredictable adventure. The word ‘bohemian’, descriptive of non-conformists, comes from the French word for gypsies, Boheme, who were mistakenly thought to come from Bohemia.

It is easy to romanticise the gypsy life. They have fascinated artists including Caravaggio, Frans Hals, Manet, Rousseau, Vincent van Gogh and Modigliani. Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence and other major writers from the 18th century onwards depicted gypsy characters or culture. The members of the famous band Gypsy Kings have gypsy heritage, but many musicians have performed songs about gypsies — Fleetwood Mac, Joan Baez, Lady Gaga, Shakira, Van Morrison, Santana, Cher and Elton John. Bizet’s exotic and mysterious gypsy characters — Carmen and Roux — which were performed in Paris at the Opéra-Comique. Johnny Depp’s gypsy character in the film Chocolat represents the seductive, but disruptive challenge to the conservative order of society.

Fashion designer, Galliano says, “The Gypsy lifestyle is a perfect fantasy, and as we all know reality is often very different from fiction.”

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist and heads the department of visual studies at the University of Karachi

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 11th, 2018