Mafia Raj (Hindi-Urdu: माफ़िया राज, مافیا راج, mafia regime) refers to a criminalized nexus (or "mafia") of government officials, elected politicians, business interests and other entities (such as law-enforcement authorities, non-governmental organizations, trade unions or criminal organizations). The phenomenon of Mafia Raj is highly prevalent in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well, countries which share a similar culture to that of India.

In India (where the term originated) it can refer to cities, states, government departments, public sector businesses or entire sectors of the economy that are subject to these conditions. Due to the ability of these mafias to operate their illegal activities in a sustained fashion, sometimes openly and with the use of violent intimidation, terms like Goonda Raj (rule of the goons), Jungle Raj (law of the jungle) and Anarchy are used to refer to the same phenomenon.

In the Indian and Pakistani media, the mafias are usually mentioned by the name of the economic sector in which they are involved. Terms such as coal mafia, timber mafia (sometimes, forest mafia), contractor mafia (sometimes, road construction mafia or road contract mafia) and land mafia are commonly used.

The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering. Each group, known as a "family", "clan", or "cosca", claims sovereignty over a territory in which it operates its rackets – usually a town or village or a neighbourhood (borgata) of a larger city. Its members call themselves "men of honour", although the public often refers to them as "mafiosi".

According to the classic definition, the Mafia is a criminality originating in Sicily - i.e. Cosa Nostra. However, the term "mafia" has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests.

The Mafia proper frequently parallels, collaborates with or clashes with, networks originating in other parts of southern Italy, such as the Camorra (from Campania), the 'Ndrangheta (from Calabria), the Stidda (southern Sicily) and the Sacra Corona Unita (from Apulia). However, Giovanni Falcone, the anti-Mafia judge murdered by the Mafia in 1992, objected to the inflation of the use of "Mafia" to organized crime in general:

Raj and Rajya mean "royalty" or "kingdom" in many Sanskrit and Hindu languages. Also, Raj is a Serbian word meaning "Paradise".

In India, 'Raj' may refer to any of several regimes:

Rajko,Rajke,Rajo and Rajan are masculine given names of Serbian origin and comes from the Serbian word "raj" meaning "Paradise". Raja, Rajka, Rajana are the female given names.