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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Mal Paharia of India

The Mal Paharia of India, numbering approximately 234,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Scheduled Tribe of the Rajmahal hills in Bihar's Dumka and Sahebganj districts and Murshidabad district in West Bengal. Settled agriculture has replaced hunting and gathering, and they are skilled basket-makers. They mostly adhere to Hinduism and Mal Paharia is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: Mal Paharia

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: South Asian Peoples
Country: India
People Cluster: Munda-Santal
Primary Language(s): Mal Paharia (mkb)
Primary Religion(s): Hinduism
Population: 234,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG041653
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Pray for the Mal Paharia of India

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.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Hinduism
Religious Affiliation: Hinduism

100%
%
Hinduism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Mal Paharia
Language Family: Indo-European

74%
%
Mal Paharia Speakers

Media Resources in Mal Paharia:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Mal Paharia:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Mal Paharia bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Mal Paharia 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 Mal Paharia:
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 Mal Paharia of India

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
readMatthew 11:28

Pray for those who are tired, weary, and burdened by the weight of sin to encounter Jesus and experience the rest that only He can give.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
readIsaiah 1:18

Pray that God will make a way for the gospel to reach many through means they can understand and access, that they will receive the good news with joy, and that they will experience complete forgiveness and cleansing from their sin that Jesus offers through His sacrifice.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
readPsalm 22:27

Pray that all families of the nations will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
read1 Corinthians 15:10–11

Pray that God's people will preach the message of Jesus' death and resurrection and that it will spread among the lost through the selfless witness of believers.

Malto Across Countries (ROP3 - 112837) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group ID ▼NameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Mal PahariaPG041653Mal PahariaIndia234,000No Longer UnreachedMal PahariaHinduism

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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