Durić was born on October 3, 1947 in the village of Malo Orašje in the commune of Semendria, Socialist Republic of Serbia, RSF Yugoslavia. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade (1967–1972). In 1986 he presented his doctoral thesis in sociology, entitled Roma culture in RSF Yugoslavia. In 1991 he moved to Berlin to take refuge in the Yugoslav Wars.
Until he left Yugoslavia, he worked as editor-in-chief of the cultural section of the Belgrade newspaper Politika. He was president of the International Roma Union and secretary general of the Roma Center of PEN International. His literary writings have been translated into more than five foreign languages. In 2011 he founded, together with others, an academy of Roma sciences and arts in Belgrade, which he led as president until his death.
Rajko Đurić became involved in political activity in order to defend the interests of the Roma population in Serbia. In the 2007 Serbian parliamentary elections, Đurić was the first person on the list of the 249 candidates of the Roma Union in Serbia. He received 17,128 votes, or 0.42% of the vote, which allowed him to be elected a member of the Serbian National Assembly.
Đurić died on November 2, 2020 in Belgrade, at the age of 73.
Published works:
- Bi kheresko-Bi limoresko, 1975
- Purano svato o dur themestar, 1980
- A i U – A thai U, 1982
- Kultur der Roma und interkulturelle Beziehungen, 1988–1990
- Paradigmen in der Kultur der Roma, 1992
- Die Kultur der Roma und Sinti, 1993
