Muslim Taga

Before being known as Taga, many of these groups were associated with families said to have held a priestly position in Hindu society, linked to the Brahmins. Over time, they gave up that religious role to become large landowners on the fertile plain between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, which led them to lose their former status.

Over the centuries of Muslim presence in northern India, part of these families converted to Islam, giving rise to the Muslim branch of the people, who today live side by side with relatives of Hindu faith in the same region and, in many cases, share the same family surname.

Farming is the traditional livelihood of the Taga people, historically tied to land ownership on the fertile plain between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. Families grow wheat, sorghum, and sugarcane, and land inheritance passes exclusively to sons. Social life is organized into two subgroups, the Dasa and the Bisa, each divided into clans called gotras, which regulate marriages and alliances within the group itself.

A notable difference between the subgroups lies in how widows are treated: among the Dasa, remarriage is allowed, while the Bisa forbid it. This social distinction is taken seriously and still shapes who marries whom today.

The Muslim Taga follow Sunni Islam, professing that Allah is the only God and Muhammad his final prophet, with the Quran and the teachings of the hadith guiding daily conduct, from the five daily prayers to the observance of the fast and other practices of the Sunni tradition. The Islamic faith is lived as an inseparable part of clan and family identity, not merely as personal belief.

Alongside them live relatives of the same origin who remained Hindu, which makes the line between religion and ethnic belonging particularly sensitive: changing faith is seen as breaking not only with a religious tradition but with the very family network that sustains marriages, land, and reputation.

Most of the Muslim Taga live in India and speak Hindi, with many also speaking Urdu. Both languages have the complete Bible, as well as the New Testament and portions in various translations, with abundant digital material available. A smaller portion lives in Pakistan, where they speak mainly Sindhi, a language that also already has the complete Bible. Scripture, therefore, exists in the people’s language, but the challenge remains getting it into the hands of a community that has rarely had contact with a Christian or with a copy of the Bible.

Being Muslim Taga means belonging to a lineage of farmers who, upon adopting Islam, further reinforced clan and caste ties as a mark of identity. Breaking with this religious heritage means breaking with one’s own family and with the gotra that has sustained marriages, land, and reputation for generations. In Uttar Pradesh, where most of the people live, Christianity is practically absent, and there is no local Christian community able to welcome those who become interested in the message of Jesus. Social isolation within one’s own neighborhood, more than any external barrier, is what keeps the people distant from the gospel.

The Muslim Taga people need, above all, someone willing to cross the social distance that separates them from the few Christians of Uttar Pradesh and Pakistan. Since Scripture already exists in Hindi, Urdu, and Sindhi, the greatest lack is not translation but people and communities who will carry that Word to families and walk alongside those who become interested in it, offering companionship and friendship in a context where changing faith comes at a high cost.