PINDARIS

The etymology of the word Pindari is variously explained. The most popular explanation is that the word pindari is of Marathi origin meaning ‘consumer of pinda’ a fermented drink. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries the word was used to describe the hordes of cruel marauders whose main occupation was loot and plunder.

The origin of the Pindaris is lost in obscurity. They were first heard of in 1689 during the Mughal invasion of Maharashtra. During the time of Bajirao I they were referred to as irregular horsemen attached to the Maratha army, serving without pay and receiving in lieu there of license to plunder. It is worth mentioning here that they never helped the British. They were mostly active in the areas of Rajputana and the Central Provinces and subsisted on plunder. Their leaders belonged to both the Hindu as well as the Muslim communiites. Chief amongst them were Wasil Muhammad, Chitu and Karim Khan. They had thousands of followers.

After the Battle of Panipat in 1761, the Pindari leaders settled chiefly in Malwa and served as auziliaries of Maratha chiefs like the Sindhia and the Holkar, and the Nizam, they came to be designated as Sindhia Shahi Pindaris, Holkar Shahi Pindaris and Nizam Shahi Pindaris. Malhar Rao Holkar gave one of the Pindari chiefs a golden flag; in 1794 the sindhia granted them lands in Narbada Valley which they extended soon by ‘conquests from the Grassias or original independent landlords in their neighborhood.

Malcolm had in view their connection with the Marathas when he wrote, ‘condemned from origin to be the very scavengers of the Marathas, their habits and character took from the first a shape suited to the work they had to perform’.

As the power of the Marathas declined the Pindaris became a body by themselves frequently engaged in devastating the territory of the very chiefs whom they professed to follow.

The weakness of the Mughal central authority, the corruption of weak and expiring states, the repeated plundering raids of the Marathas created conditions in India which the Pindaris role ‘like masses of putrefaction in animal matter’. The chaotic political conditions in many parts of India deprived large number of people of their peaceful occupations. The life of plunder offered an easier means of livelihood than honest labor. The Pindari ranks swelled during the Governor Generalship of Wellesley when a large body of professional soldiers were disbanded by the subsidiary allies of the East India Company. The Pindaris spread misery all around and many hardy peasants were impelled to join their ranks. The Pindaris thus formed ‘not a particular force but a system fed and nourished by the very miseries they created’.

The Pindaris did not come from any particular area or believe in any particular religion. They were a heterogeneous element drawn from the ranks of disbanded soldiers, fugitives from justice, idle, profligate and unscrupulous men both from Hinduism and Islam. The prospect of rich plunder was the only tie of cohesion among the members of a Pindari party. Their mode of warfare was a peculiar one. They avoided pitched battles with regular armies. When on march, they carried no baggage of any description and supported themselves and their horses on the grain and provision which they plundered. Their favorite (arms) weapons were long bamboo spears, some used fire arms also. Their chief merit was their speed. ‘The celerity of their marches was not more remarkable than their secrecy. It was scarcely possible to gain information for their movements till they had completed’. Like swarms of locusts they destroyed and left waste whatever province they visited. British writers like Malcolm, Princep, Duff, Tod and Thorton have given detailed accounts of the plundering raids of the Pindaris.

In the early nineteenth century the chief Pindari leaders were Chitu, Wasil Muhammad and Karim Khan. The Pindaris gradually extended the area of their operations organizing raids in the Company’s territories.

In 1812, the Pindaris plundered the districts of Mirzapur and Shahabad; in 1815 they raided the Nizams dominion and in 1816 plundered the Northern Circars (Sarkars).

Lord Hastings decided to take stern action against the Pindaris. The Court of Directors also authorized action. Hastings improved the company’s diplomatic position by concluding agreements with the Maratha chiefs, the Rajput princes and the ruler of Bhopal getting promises of help against these robber bands.

British writers like V. A. Smith, P. E. Roberts and S. M. Edwards have popularized the myth that the Pindari marauders, the Afghan free-booters and the Maratha chiefs were in league with one another and Daulat Rao Sindhia was the ‘nominal sovereign’ of the Pindaris. The problem, therefore, before the Governor General was not only to encircle the Pinadaris, but also to check the attempts of the Maratha chiefs to breakthrough to their assistance; and that the prescience of the Governor-General was fully justified, for ‘the hunt of the Pindaris became merged in the third Maratha War’.

Recent researches have proved that the population in the Maratha territories even was not safe from the depredations of the Pindaris and that Daulat Rao Sindhia himself employed his troops to suppress the Pindaris. In the summer of 1815 the Sindhia entered into a definite agreement with the Pindaris whereby the latter agreed to give up the policy of plunder and to live on the lands alotted to them by the Sindhia. Edmonstone, vice president of the Governor General’s Council, assered that the Sindhia was sincere in his desire to suppress the Pindaris and to dissociate himself from their activities. It seems Hastings ws keen on war with the Sindhia. He noted in his private journal on 23 Dec 1816: ‘It is far better if the Sindhia be resolved to risk his existence for the support of the Pindaris’. In fact, Hastings did not really desire the Sindhia’s cooperation in his campaign against the Pindaris. On the other hand, he desired war against the Sindhia and found in the campaign against the Pindaris the right opportunity to provoke him to it.

Lord Hastings wanted to suppress the Pindaris and defeat the Marathas in one sweep. For this he gathered a large army of 1.13.000 men and 300 guns and attacked the Pindaris from four sides. He himself took command of the force from the north while Sir Thomas Hislop commanded the force from the south.

By the end of 1817 the Pindaris were drive across the Chambal and by Jan 1818 their organized bands were destroyed.

In 1818, the Pindaris were completely suppressed, and all their bands disintegrated. Karim Khan was given a small estate in the Gorakhpur district of the United Provinces (Modern UP), Wasil Muhammad took refuge in the Sindhia’s camp, but the latter handed him over to the British. Wasil committed suicide in captivity. Chitu escaped to the forest where a tiger devoured him. Thus by 1824, the menace of the Pindaris came to an end.

In 1824 Malcolm wrote, ‘the Pindaris are effectually destroyed, that their name is almost forgotten’.

Duff wrote, ‘The Pindaris thus dispersed without leaders and without a home or a rendezvous, were afterwards little heard of though flying parties were seen in the Deccan until the termination of the war with the Peshwa’.

Ref: B. L. Grover and S. Grover