Query: The Romani people originated in Eastern China.

Relevant passages:
Romani people <=SEP=> The Romani ( also spelled Romany ; -LSB- ˈroʊməni -RSB- , -LSB- ˈrɒ - -RSB- ) , or Roma , are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group , living mostly in Europe and the Americas and originating from the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent ,   apparently from the region that is currently occupied by the Indian states of Rajasthan , Haryana , and Punjab .   The Romani are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym `` Gypsies '' ( or `` Gipsies '' ) , which some people consider pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity .  They are a dispersed people , but their most concentrated populations are located in Europe , especially Central , Eastern and Southern Europe ( including Turkey , Spain and Southern France ) . The Romani originated in Northern India and arrived in Mid-West Asia , and Europe soon thereafter , around 1,000 years ago ,  either separating from the Dom people or , at least , having a similar history . Specifically , the ancestors of both the Romani and the Dom left North India sometime between the sixth and eleventh century .   Since the 19th century , some Romani have also migrated to the Americas . There are an estimated one million Roma in the United States ; and 800,000 in Brazil , most of whose ancestors emigrated in the nineteenth century from eastern Europe . Brazil also includes some Romani descended from people deported by the government of Portugal during the Inquisition in the colonial era . In migrations since the late nineteenth century , Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada .   In February 2016 , during the International Roma Conference , the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India . The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora .   The Romani language is divided into several dialects , which add up to an estimated number of speakers larger than two million . The total number of Romani people is at least twice as large ( several times as large according to high estimates ) . Many Romani are native speakers of the language current in their country of residence , or of mixed languages combining the two ; those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani .

Indian subcontinent <=SEP=> The Indian subcontinent or the subcontinent , also called the Indian continent , is a southern region of Asia , mostly situated on the Indian Plate and projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas . Geologically , the Indian subcontinent is related to the land mass that rifted from Gondwana and merged with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago . Geographically , it is the peninsular region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north , the Hindu Kush in the west , and the Arakanese in the east . Politically , the Indian subcontinent usually includes Bangladesh , Bhutan , India , Maldives , Nepal , Pakistan and Sri Lanka .   Sometimes , the term South Asia is used interchangeably with Indian subcontinent . There is no consensus about which countries should be included in each .