Multani gypsies in Uzbekistan
Recently the Uzbek capital of Tashkent was the scene of a confrontation between human rights activists and a group of gypsy women.
In Uzbekistan gypsies are commonly known as ‘luli.’ However another name used for some of them is ‘Multani.’ It is said that centuries ago these people came from the city of Multan.
Multan is located in the south of the Pakistani province of Punjab. The city has a strong Sufi tradition. In fact the newly elected Prime Minister, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, is from Multan.
Anyways these gypsies come from an economically deprived background with many being beggars. Recent years of economic down turn in Uzbekistan, a country under the tight grip of dictator Islam Karimov, has placed a lot of pressure on people with many moving to Russia in search of work.
March 27, 2008 at 1:58 am
The gypsies do come from Pakistan/India/Punjab/Multan and are spread all over the world.
I came to know a few in Finland. They are known as “Mustalainen” (Black people) in Finnish and amoung each other they call themselves as “Kaale”/
Ankhaan = Eyes, Kanna = ears , Pani, koni, Prah(Brother) to name few.
April 17, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I came to know about these lolly that they centuries ago came from Multan,when i visited Samarqand and Bukhara last year.
It was told to me by the Ex-Director of the Medical Institute when i visited Samarqand state medical institute.Uzbeks call them Lully or Multani
August 22, 2009 at 9:15 pm
i will admit we do originate from the indian subcontinent, over the years we have moved all over the world. we try to teach our kids about our history, traditions and culture. ok emphasis on education is not much but we certainly know how to make money, and we teach the children how we were persecuted. Our history is very important to us. What people fail to realise is why we left India and Pakistan. We were treated like 3rd rate citizens, we were all hindu once but we were of low caste (daljit) some converted to being christians and some became travellers. but no matter what our curse still follows us to this day.we were cursed by one of our elders as he was betrayed and killed by our people. Before he died he cursed us to never be accepted no matter where we go