Pindari: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Irregular military around India, 17th-19th century}}

The '''Pindaris''' were [[irregular military]] plunderers and foragers in 17th- through early 19th-century [[Indian subcontinent]] who accompanied initially the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] army, later the [[Maratha Army|Maratha]] army, and finally on their own before being eliminated in 1817-19 [[Pindari War]].<ref name=britannicapindari>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pindaris Pindari: Indian History], Encyclopaedia Britannica</ref> They were unpaid and their compensation was entirely the loot they plundered during wars and raids.<ref name=britannicapindari/> They were mostly horsemen armed with spears and swords who would create chaos and deliver intelligence about the enemy positions to benefit the army they accompanied.<ref name=cooper2003p32>{{cite book|author=Randolf Cooper|title=The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India: The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qweZWra_tbwC |year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-82444-6|pages=32–34, 94–95, 303–305}}</ref> ]],they recruited from all classes and religions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pindari|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pindaris|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=30 July 2016}}</ref><ref name="Woerkens2002p24" />

 

[[Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings|Francis Rawdon-Hastings]], Governor-General of British India led an army in early 19th-century to eliminate the Pindaris through military action during the [[Third Anglo-Maratha War]].<ref name=britannicapindari /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vartavarian |first=Mesrob |year=2016 |title=Pacification and Patronage in the Maratha Deccan, 1803–1818 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=50 |issue=6 |pages=1749–1791 }}</ref><ref name="Hardy1972p34">{{Cite book|first=Thomas |last=Hardy |year=1972 |title=The Muslims of British India |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=34–39, 51–52 |isbn=978-0-521-09783-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDw4AAAAIAAJ }}</ref>

The Pindaris were horsemen who were mostly armed with a type of [[talwar]] and a large spear. They were organised into groups called ''durrahs'' each of which had a leader and were organised into different castes and classes. Allegiances were usually hereditary but membership of each ''durrah'' could be interchangeable.<ref name="mcel" />

The Pindaris were from a variety of religious and traditional backgrounds, all of which appear to have been accepted within their society. In addition to their individual beliefs, the Pindaris worshipped Ramasah Pir, an ancient Pindari raider, as a demi-god. Pindari women would place small icons of horses in a shrine dedicated to Pir before the commencement of their raids, and the men would wear tokens stamped with his image.<ref name="mcel" />

===Mughal Empire era===

The first clear mention of Pindaris in historical texts occurs in the works of the [[Persian people|Persian]] historian, [[Firishta]], who refers to them marching with the [[Mughal Army|Mughal armies]] of [[Aurangzeb]] during his 1689 campaign in the [[Deccan Plateau]].<ref name="mcel" /> Around the same time, the Italian traveler [[Niccolao Manucci]], in his memoir about the Mughal Empire, wrote about Bederia (Pidari), stating that "these are the first to invade the enemy's territory, where they plunder everything they find."<ref>{{cite book|author=Niccolò Manucci|author2= William Irvine (Translator)| title=Storia do Mogor: or, Mogul India, 1653-1708. by Niccolao Manucci |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HOMUAQAAIAAJ |year=1965|publisher=Editions|page=431}}</ref>

According to Tapan Raychaudhuri et al., the Mughal army "always had in its train the "Bidari" (as pronounced in [[Arabic]]), the privileged and recognized thieves who first plundered the enemy territory and everything they could find". The Deccan sultanates and Aurangzeb's campaign in central India deployed them against kingdoms such as Golconda, and in Bengal. The unpaid cavalry got compensated for their services by "burning and looting everywhere".<ref name="RaychaudhuriHabib1982p192"/> The Hindu Marathas, in their war against the Mughals, evolved this concept by expanding the Pindaris brigade, encouraging them not only to loot the Muslim territories but gather and deliver food to their regular army. The Maratha army never carried provisions, and gathered their resources and provisions from the enemy territory as they invaded and conquered more regions of the collapsing Mughal state.<ref name="RaychaudhuriHabib1982p192"/> According to the historian Richard Eaton, plunder of frontier regions was a part of the strategy that contributed wealth and propelled the Sultanate systems in the Indian subcontinent.{{sfn|Richard M. Eaton|2005|pp=24-25}} Plunder, along with taxes and tribute payments contributed to growing imperial revenues for the Mughal rulers.{{sfn|John Richards|1995|pp=8-9, 58, 69}}

The Bidaris of the Aurangzeb's army and the Pindaris of the Maratha army extended this tradition of violence and plunder in their pursuit of the political and ideological wars. Shivaji, and later his successors in the name of his dynasty, included the Pindaris in their war strategy. Deploying the Pindaris, they plundered the Mughal and Sultanate territories surrounding the Maratha empire and used the plundered wealth to sustain the Maratha army.{{sfn|John Richards|1995|pp=207-208, 212, 215-220}}<ref name="Roy2011p102"/><ref name=cooper2003p32 /><ref>{{cite book|author=Abraham Eraly|title=Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=04ellRQx4nMC&pg=PA471 |year=2000 |publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-100143-2|pages=471–472}}</ref><ref name=Farrell>{{cite book|author1=Jack Fairey|author2=Brian P. Farrell|title=Empire in Asia: A New Global History: From Chinggisid to Qing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IlFuDwAAQBAJ |year=2018|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4725-9123-4|pages=144–145}}</ref>  

After the arrival of the [[East India Company|British East India Company]] among the chaos of a collapsed Mughal Empire and the weakening of the Maratha leadership, the Pindaris became a semi-independent power centred in the area just north of the [[Narmada River]].<ref name="mcel" /> By late 18th-century, the Maratha empire had fragmented, the British colonial era had arrived and the Pindaris had transformed from being involved in regional wars to looting for the sake of their own and their leaders' wealth.<ref name="Thompson2017p208"/> They conducted raids for plunder to enrich themselves, or to whichever state was willing to hire them. Sometimes they worked for both sides in a conflict, causing heavy damages to the civilian populations of both sides. They advanced through central India, Gujarat and Malwa, with protection from rulers from [[Gwalior State|Gwalior]] and [[Indore State|Indore]].<ref name=britannicapindari/><ref name=kothiyal/><ref name=ward/> With the plundered wealth, they had also acquired cannons and more deadly military equipment to challenge local troops and law enforcement personnel. The Amir Khan-linked Pindaris, for example, brought 200 canons to seize and loot [[Jaipur State|Jaipur]].<ref name="Thompson2017p218">{{cite book|author=Edward Thompson|title=The Making of the Indian Princes|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-2fDgAAQBAJ |year= 2017|publisher= Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-96604-7|pages=179–180, 218–223}}</ref> According to Edward Thompson, the Pindaris led by Amir Khan and those led by Muhammad Khan had become nearly independent mobile satellite confederacy that launched annual loot and plunder campaigns, after the monsoon harvest season, on rural and urban settlements. Along with cash, produce and family wealth, these Pindari leaders took people as slaves for sale. They attacked regions under British control, the Hindu rajas, and the Muslim sultans.<ref name="Thompson2017p208"/>

Ultimately, the British under the governorship of [[Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings|Francis Rawdon-Hastings]] became so frustrated that they formed the largest army they had ever organised in India to exterminate the Pindaris.<ref name="mcel" /> Rawdon-Hastings, with the approval of the Court of Directors of the [[British East India Company|East India Company]], also utilised this force to fight against the remaining Maratha forces and take ownership of their territories in what became known as the [[Third Anglo-Maratha War]].<ref name="mapw">{{cite book |last1=Burton |first1=R.G. |title=The Mahratta And Pindari War |date=1910 |publisher=Government Press |location=Simla |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.284400/mode/2up}}</ref> From November 1817 until 1819, some 120,000 British troops surrounded and invaded the Malwa and Maratha regions, eliminating the Pindaris where they found them and forcing the surrender of the Maratha leaders.<ref name=britannicapindari/><ref name=kothiyal>{{cite book|author=Tanuja Kothiyal|title=Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=be-7CwAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-08031-7|pages=109–113, 116–120 with footnotes}}</ref><ref name=ward>{{cite book|author1=Adolphus William Ward|author2=George Walter Prothero|author3=Stanley Mordaunt Leathes|title=The Cambridge Modern History: The growth of nationalities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7oBGAQAAMAAJ |year=1969|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=725–727}}</ref><ref name="mapw" />

In addition to the military action, the British coalition also offered regular employment to some of the Pindari militia by converting them into a separate contingent of its forces. A minority were given jobs as police and offered pensions or [[Nawab]] positions along with land to their leaders such as Namdar Khan and Amir Khan.<ref name="Hardy1972p34"/>

[[Veer (2010 film)|Veer]], a 2010 film directed by [[Anil Sharma]] and starring [[Salman Khan]], depicts the story of a Pindari warrior named Veer Pratap Singh who fought against British colonial rule in [[Rajasthan]].

*  ''Pindari'' in [https://books.google.com/books?id=xGXhAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA388&dq=pindara+caste&hl=en&ei=3cyATvujPIXK0AHfyJUK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=pindara%20caste&f=false The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India], Volume 1, by R.V. Russell, R.B.H. Lai