The Khatwe of India

The Khatwe of India, numbering approximately 262,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as a community of northern Bihar descended from Magadh migrants who traditionally served as palanquin-bearers. Most are now agricultural laborers, with some vegetarian Vaishnava families They are an Indigenous people, with Khatwa as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Hindi people cluster of the South Asian Peoples. Their primary religion is Hinduism. They primarily speak Maithili.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: South Asian Peoples
Country: India
People Cluster: Hindi
Primary Language(s): Maithili (mai)
Primary Religion(s): Hinduism
Population: 262,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG049388
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Khatwe 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

99%
%
Hinduism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Maithili
Language Family: Indo-European

100%
%
Maithili Speakers

Media Resources in Maithili:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film

2 films

Bible Resources in Maithili:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Wycliffe Bible Tranlsators, Inc.✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Maithili bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Khatwe 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 Khatwe:
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 Khatwe of India

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
readPsalm 73:26

Pray that those who are lost and struggling to find hope will find their strength and hope in God, recognizing Him as their portion and deliverer forever.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
readRomans 2:4

Pray that, in God's kindness and according to His nature, He will lead many to repentance.

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.

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
read1 Corinthians 9:20

Pray that believers from similar cultures will be compelled by Christ's love to reach people who don't know the gospel, and that those people will receive the good news with joy.

Khatwa Across Countries (ROP3 - 112541) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

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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