diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonHadoopUtil.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonHadoopUtil.scala
index a4817b3cf770d..5d0f1dcc88097 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonHadoopUtil.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonHadoopUtil.scala
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ private[python] object PythonHadoopUtil {
    * Convert a [[java.util.Map]] of properties to a [[org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration]]
    */
   def mapToConf(map: java.util.Map[String, String]): Configuration = {
-    val conf = new Configuration()
+    val conf = new Configuration(false)
     map.asScala.foreach { case (k, v) => conf.set(k, v) }
     conf
   }
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
index 5b80e149b38ac..6bcfcc3da070a 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD extends Logging {
       valueConverterClass: String,
       confAsMap: java.util.HashMap[String, String],
       batchSize: Int): JavaRDD[Array[Byte]] = {
-    val conf = PythonHadoopUtil.mapToConf(confAsMap)
+    val conf = getMergedConf(confAsMap, sc.hadoopConfiguration())
     val rdd =
       newAPIHadoopRDDFromClassNames[K, V, F](sc,
         None, inputFormatClass, keyClass, valueClass, conf)
@@ -402,7 +402,7 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD extends Logging {
       valueConverterClass: String,
       confAsMap: java.util.HashMap[String, String],
       batchSize: Int): JavaRDD[Array[Byte]] = {
-    val conf = PythonHadoopUtil.mapToConf(confAsMap)
+    val conf = getMergedConf(confAsMap, sc.hadoopConfiguration())
     val rdd =
       hadoopRDDFromClassNames[K, V, F](sc,
         None, inputFormatClass, keyClass, valueClass, conf)
@@ -618,7 +618,7 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD extends Logging {
       keyConverterClass: String,
       valueConverterClass: String,
       useNewAPI: Boolean): Unit = {
-    val conf = PythonHadoopUtil.mapToConf(confAsMap)
+    val conf = getMergedConf(confAsMap, pyRDD.context.hadoopConfiguration)
     val converted = convertRDD(SerDeUtil.pythonToPairRDD(pyRDD, batchSerialized),
       keyConverterClass, valueConverterClass, new JavaToWritableConverter)
     if (useNewAPI) {
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDDSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDDSuite.scala
index e2ec50fb1f172..aae5fb002e1e8 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDDSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDDSuite.scala
@@ -17,16 +17,42 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.api.python
 
-import java.io.{ByteArrayOutputStream, DataOutputStream}
+import java.io.{ByteArrayOutputStream, DataOutputStream, File}
 import java.net.{InetAddress, Socket}
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets
+import java.util
 
+import scala.annotation.tailrec
+import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
 import scala.concurrent.duration.Duration
 
-import org.apache.spark.{SparkConf, SparkFunSuite}
+import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.{LongWritable, Text}
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.FileInputFormat
+
+import org.apache.spark.{LocalSparkContext, SparkConf, SparkContext, SparkFunSuite}
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext
+import org.apache.spark.rdd.{HadoopRDD, RDD}
 import org.apache.spark.security.{SocketAuthHelper, SocketAuthServer}
+import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
+
+class PythonRDDSuite extends SparkFunSuite with LocalSparkContext {
 
-class PythonRDDSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
+  var tempDir: File = _
+
+  override def beforeAll(): Unit = {
+    super.beforeAll()
+    tempDir = Utils.createTempDir()
+  }
+
+  override def afterAll(): Unit = {
+    try {
+      Utils.deleteRecursively(tempDir)
+    } finally {
+      super.afterAll()
+    }
+  }
 
   test("Writing large strings to the worker") {
     val input: List[String] = List("a"*100000)
@@ -65,4 +91,59 @@ class PythonRDDSuite extends SparkFunSuite {
       throw new Exception("exception within handleConnection")
     }
   }
+
+  test("mapToConf should not load defaults") {
+    val map = Map("key" -> "value")
+    val conf = PythonHadoopUtil.mapToConf(map.asJava)
+    assert(conf.size() === map.size)
+    assert(conf.get("key") === map("key"))
+  }
+
+  test("SparkContext's hadoop configuration should be respected in PythonRDD") {
+    // hadoop conf with default configurations
+    val hadoopConf = new Configuration()
+    assert(hadoopConf.size() > 0)
+    val headEntry = hadoopConf.asScala.head
+    val (firstKey, firstValue) = (headEntry.getKey, headEntry.getValue)
+
+    // passed to spark conf with a different value(prefixed by spark.)
+    val conf = new SparkConf().setAppName("test").setMaster("local")
+    conf.set("spark.hadoop." + firstKey, "spark." + firstValue)
+
+    sc = new SparkContext(conf)
+    val outDir = new File(tempDir, "output").getAbsolutePath
+    // write output as HadoopRDD's input
+    sc.makeRDD(1 to 1000, 10).saveAsTextFile(outDir)
+
+    val javaSparkContext = new JavaSparkContext(sc)
+    val confMap = new util.HashMap[String, String]()
+    // set input path in job conf
+    confMap.put(FileInputFormat.INPUT_DIR, outDir)
+
+    val pythonRDD = PythonRDD.hadoopRDD(
+      javaSparkContext,
+      classOf[TextInputFormat].getCanonicalName,
+      classOf[LongWritable].getCanonicalName,
+      classOf[Text].getCanonicalName,
+      null,
+      null,
+      confMap,
+      0
+    )
+
+    @tailrec
+    def getRootRDD(rdd: RDD[_]): RDD[_] = {
+      rdd.dependencies match {
+       case Nil => rdd
+       case dependency :: _ => getRootRDD(dependency.rdd)
+      }
+    }
+
+    // retrieve hadoopRDD as it's a root RDD
+    val hadoopRDD = getRootRDD(pythonRDD).asInstanceOf[HadoopRDD[_, _]]
+    val jobConf = hadoopRDD.getConf
+    // the jobConf passed to HadoopRDD should contain SparkContext's hadoop items rather the default
+    // configs in client's Configuration
+    assert(jobConf.get(firstKey) === "spark." + firstValue)
+  }
 }