Major Hindu People Groups


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THE UNREACHED PEOPLES PRAYER PROFILES
An Introduction to Hinduism

Part 5.
Major Hindu PeopleGroups.

India is a very ethnically and culturally complex nation, and no other part of the world has such a diversity and concentration of undreached peoples. Nearly 16% of the world's population is Indian, and it is estimated that by the year 2020, India will become the most populous nation in the world, with nearly 1.3 billion people.

A 1991 survey identified 4,635 distinct peoples groups. India is a secular state, and approximately 79% of Indians are Hindu, 12% are Muslims, and nearly 2% Sikhs.

Nepal is the world's only Hindu Kingdom, and is approximately 89% Hindu. The only other substantial location of Hindus is in Bali, Indonesia which is approximately 92% Hindu. Smaller Hindu communities (comprised mainly of expatriate Indians) can be found in many other countries around the world.

It should be noted that the current Joshua Project 2000 list is not an accurate picture of groups in India, as it primarily covers the major linguistic groups (such as the Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali etc.), and the scheduled tribes (such as the Bhil, Gond, Kond etc.). It doesn't take into account the numerous castes and occupational groups. It is estimated there are approximately 6,400 different castes in India.

Major Hindu Unreached People Groups ( > 1 million)
Country	Name	Population		Country	Name	Population
India	Assamese Awadhi Baiswari Bangri Bengali Berar Marathi Bhojpuri Bihari Bundelkhandi Chhattisgarhi Gujarati Hindi Kanarese Kanauji Konkanese Kumaoni Magadhi Bihari Maitili Manipuri	15,293,500 34,480,600 5,776,500 60,661,600 6,971,300 33,298,300 11,553,100 11,025,700 34,997,000 51,597,100 29,164,200 8,664,800 5,058,100 2,034,200 14,441,300 29,203,800 1,253,100		India Bangladesh Indonesia Nepal	Maratha Nagpur Bihari Nepalese Nimadi Orisi Rajasthani Santal Sindhi Tulu Bengali Balinese Bhojpuri Bihari Maitili Nepalese	69,819,000 1,329,600 7,532,300 1,308,400 24,705,100 9,342,300 5,155,900 1,905,600 2,148,300 14,090,700 3,442,600 1,720,800 2,366,000 12,081,300

[MAP 18K]

© Copyright 1997
Bethany World Prayer Center
This article (which first appeared in "Frontiers Focus" Vol 1 #3, and is used by permission),
may be copied and distributed without obtaining permission
as long as it is not altered, bound, published
or used for profit purposes.

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