If The Indian Council For Cultural Relations Is Correct, Elvis And Picasso Might Have Been Of Indian Origin

George Mikes, the British humourist who was born in Hungary, claimed, tongue in cheek, that everyone in the world was of Hungarian origin.

The Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) might take exception to such a pronouncement by making the counterclaim that everyone 每 or at least almost everyone 每 is actually of Indian descent.

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At its recent three-day Delhi conference 每 attended by international scholars and ministers Sushma Swaraj and Mahesh Sharma 每 the ICCR raised an old theory which traces the origins of the globally scattered community of the Romany folk 每 variously known as Roma, gypsies, tinkers and Zingari 每 to India where this nomadic tribe is said to be represented by the Banjaras.

The language of the Roma 每 who are believed to have migrated from India to Europe 2,500 years ago 每 is said to have a number of words in common with Hindustani and many of the Romany people worship a deity said to be akin to goddess Kali.

Celebrities such as king of rock＆n＊roll Elvis Presley, paint maestro Pablo Picasso, and film actors Yul Brynner, Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins are, according to the ICCR director general, of Roma stock, and as such could technically be subsumed under the generic classification of PIOs, or People of Indian Origin.

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If ICCR＊s assertion were to be taken at face value 每 or race value 每 it adds an entirely new dimension to the already much-vaunted Indian diaspora and its global reach.

The diaspora has become the darling of our current prime minister 每 and vice versa 每 and the supposition that thanks to the Romany connection he could have a far larger potential fan following abroad could well spur NaMo to undertake even more foreign forays than he already does. Indeed, thanks to his itinerant ways, the PM could himself claim to be part wandering gypsy, by inclination if nothing else.

The suggestion that all roads lead to Roma 每 and by implication back to India 每 could well find enthusiastic support from advocates of Akhand Bharat, whose super-patriotic zeal knows literally no boundaries.

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Such ethnic expansionism might also find favour with BJP＊s ideological mentor RSS, which has launched an ambitious outreach programme to woo Indian minorities such as Muslims and Christians to join its so-far exclusivist Hindu flock. After all, with only slight modification the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh could become the Romany Swayamsevak Sangh. However, sceptics who tend to look gift horses in the mouth, and thereby could be described as persistent naysayers, could dismiss all such conjecture as having a decidedly odd odour. Or what might be called a fishy a-Roma.