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Passage Two The striving of countries in Central Europe to enter the European Union may offer an unprecedented chance to the continents Gypsies to be recognized as a nation, albeit one without a defined territory. And if they were to achieve that they might even seek some kind of formal placeat least a total population outnumbers that of many of the Unions present and future countries. Some experts put the figure at 4m-plus; some proponents of Gypsy rights go as high as 15m. Unlike Jews, Gypsies have had no known ancestral land to hark back to. Though their language is related to Hindi, their territorial origins are misty. Romanian peasants held them to be born on the moon. Other Europeans thought them migrant Egyptians, hence the derivative Gypsy. Most probably they were itinerant metal workers and entertainers who drifted west from India in the 7th century. However, since communism in Central Europe collapsed a decade ago, the notion of Romanestan as a landless nation founded on Gypsy culture has gained ground. The International Romany Union, which says it stands for 10m Gypsies in more than 30 countries, is fostering the idea of self-rallying. It is trying to promote a standard and written form of the language; it waves a Gypsy flag when it lobbies in such places as the United Bations; and in July it held a congress in Prague, The Czech capital. Where President Vaclav Havel said that Gypsies in his own country and elsewhere should have a better deal. | 
