The Dharkar of India

The Dharkar of India, numbering approximately 31,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Scheduled Caste of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh whose name signifies their traditional occupation of rope- and cane-making, sustained chiefly by bamboo basketry and the sale of winnowing fans. They mostly adhere to Hinduism and Chhattisgarhi is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: South Asian Peoples
Country: India
People Cluster: Hindi
Primary Language(s): Chhattisgarhi (hne)
Primary Religion(s): Hinduism
Population: 31,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG048232
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Dharkar 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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Hinduism
Religious Affiliation: Hinduism

100%
%
Hinduism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Chhattisgarhi
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Chhattisgarhi Speakers

Media Resources in Chhattisgarhi:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Bible Resources in Chhattisgarhi:

2 entries

Or check out the Chhattisgarhi bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Dharkar are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Dharkar:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Dharkar of India

Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
readRomans 1:22

Ask God to pour out His mercy and bring those who are walking in their own wisdom to faith in Jesus.

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.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples."
readJohn 8:31

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will abide in Christ daily, depending on Him for every need.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
read2 Corinthians 1:8-9

Pray that as people hear and believe the gospel, they will be faithful as they walk through trials and will have an opportunity to be a witness to others in this people group of the goodness of God.

Dharkar Across Countries (ROP3 - 111949) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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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