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Chinese (Traditional) - 中文（繁體) | French - Français
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The Mahale of Bangladesh

The Mahale of Bangladesh, numbering approximately 25,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Munda-speaking people who migrated from Jharkhand's Dumka district to Bangladesh's northern districts in the early 1900s, sharing twelve clans and 80 percent language similarity with the neighboring Santal, traditionally skilled in bamboo basketry. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Santali is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3 Flash: Mahale

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: South Asian Peoples
Country: Bangladesh
People Cluster: Munda-Santal
Primary Language(s): Santali (sat)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 25,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG001187
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Pray for the Mahale of Bangladesh

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

39%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Santali
Language Family: Austroasiatic

100%
%
Santhali Speakers

Media Resources in Santali:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film

2 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Santali:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Santali bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Mahale are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Mahale:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Mahale of Bangladesh

For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.
readLuke 19:10

Pray that those who are lost will respond to the One who came to seek and save the lost, and experience the joy of being found.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
readLuke 5:27-28

Prat that God will prepare many hearts to meet Him when He says, “Follow Me!” and that they will respond in faith, leaving everything behind to follow Him.

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of host.
readJeremiah 15:16

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will find joy and delight in the Word of the Lord.

And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readLuke 10:2

Ask God to send out laborers into His harvest field, raising up believers from around the world to go and proclaim the kingdom of God with those who need to hear it.

Mahli, Mahali Across Countries (ROP3 - 106041) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguage ▼Religion
MahalePG001187MahaleBangladesh25,000No Longer UnreachedSantaliProtestantism
MahliPG041634MahliIndia558,000Engaged yet UnreachedMarathiHinduism

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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