PINDARIS THE PLUNDERERS OF PEOPLE.

 We have seen in many historical movies, the term Pindari being used?  Latest, it was used in the movie Bahubali. Who is a Pindari?

The Mughal army was always accompanied by a group of plunderers known as Bidari in Arabic. They were later known as the Pindaris. The function of this group is to plunder the enemy territory and anything they found there. 

Aurangzebs campaigns on Golconda and Bengal had Pindari groupings accompanying the Mughal army. The Pindaris were not paid and they got compensated by burning and looting wherever the Mughal troops attacked. Obviously such an attack by the Pindaris would demoralize the enemy before the Mughal army attacked them.

The Marathas in their war against the Mughals expended the concept to its extreme. They expanded the Pindari brigade and used them not only to loot the enemy but also deliver food to their army. The Marathas never carried any provisions and they lived off the territories they conquered from the Mughals. This is the reason why the Marathas were not trusted by any king at that time, be it Hindu or Muslim.

The Pindaris also plundered the Mughal ships loaded with goods on way to the Arabian sea for trade. The devastation and disruption by the Pindaris strengthened the Marathas. The Pindaris wore a turban and are naked except for a belt.

Most of the Pindari leaders were Muslims. The famous Pindari leaders include Namdar Khan, Dost Mohammed, Wasil Mohammed, Chitu Khan, Khajeh Bush, Fazil Khan, Amir Khan & others. The Hindu leaders include Gowaris, Alande, Ghyatalak, Kshirsagar, Ranshing and Thorat.

The Pindaris included the men as well as their wives and sometimes swelled to as many as 50,000 people. They are mounted on horses and moved swiftly and destabilized the enemy’s army and state apparatus by creating chaos, isolate enemy armed units by harassing them, provoke and waste army resources, break or confuse the logistics and communication lines of the enemy, gather intelligence of the size and armament of the enemy, raid enemy food and fodder to supply them to the Marathas.

The Pindaris of the Marathas did not attack the enemy soldiers directly but picked on the civilians, outposts, trade routes etc. Once confusion set in on account of the Pindari attack, the Maratha army moved in to engage the enemy.

Pindaris were a major resource for the Marathas but sometimes they even plundered their own allies and Shivaji had to bring in strict rules to control the Pindaris.

By late 18^th century when the Maratha empire was fragmented, Pindaris became a law unto themselves plundering to make their respective chiefs happy. Sometimes they allied with both the sides in a conflict causing severe damage to the civilian population of both the warring parties.

They advanced through Central India, Gujarat and Malwa with protection from the Maratha rulers of Gwalior and Indore. They acquired canons and other military equipment and used it for their plunder. The group led by Amir Khan had 200 canons and they attacked and looted Jaipur. The group fo Pindaris led by Amir Khan and Mohhammed Khan became nearly independent satellite armies and launched annual loot and plunder campaigns. The Pindaris took people as slaves for sale.

The British got fed of these Pindaris and ultimately in the early 19^th century Lord Hastings took a large army and completely suppressed them in the Pindari war which later turned into the 3rd Anglo Maratha war and the Marathas who supported the Pindaris were defeated. In the war the Pindaris were completely surrounded by the British and any escape cut off. Thus they have been completely disbanded by the British. Some small bands of Pindaris took to sporadic crimes through blackmail and kidnapping.