- Pindari
The Pindaris were the irregular horsemen who accompanied the
Maratha armies in centralIndia during the 18th century when theMughal Empire was breaking up. The origin of their name is uncertain. The Pindaris were loosely organized under self-chosen leaders, and each band was usually attached to one or other of the great Maratha leaders. Their special characteristic was that they received no pay, but rather purchased the privilege of plundering on their own account.'They were men,' writes a chronicler of the period, 'of all lands and religions.They generally avoided pitched battles and plunder was their principal object, for which they perpetrated horrible cruelties on all whom they could get hold of.' Fact|date=February 2007Emergence
When the regular forces of the Marathas had been broken up in the campaigns conducted by Sir Arthur Wellesley and Lord Lake in 1802-04, the Pindaris made their headquarters in
Malwa , under the tacit protection ofSindhia andHolkar . They were accustomed to assemble every year at the beginning of November, and sally forth into British territory in search of plunder. In one such raid upon theMasulipatam coast they plundered 339 villages, killing or wounding 682 persons, torturing 3600 and carrying off property worth a quarter of a million pounds. In 1808-09 they plunderedGujarat , and in 1812Mirzapur . In 1814 they were reckoned at 25,000 to 30,000 horsemen.The Pindari War
Lord Hastings, with the approval of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, decided to exterminate and eliminate the Pindaris. The approval was received in September 1816 and Hastings put into place a plan by the end of 1817. To begin with, he entered into an understanding with several other powers active in India, and then commenced precise military planning and preparations to encircle and eliminate all the Pindaris. This organized campaign, known as the Pindari War, became the
Third Anglo-Maratha War .This was an elaborate military plan: to attack the Pindari forces from the north and east from
Bengal , from the west fromGujarat , and from the south from theDeccan . Hastings committed 120,000 men and 300 artillery pieces to the command created and entrusted with the task to eliminate the Pindaris. The command consisted of the Northern Force, comprising of 4 divisions under his personal command; the Deccan Force of 5 divisions under the command of Thomas Hislop with Sir John Malcolm as his principal lieutenant. The forces moved swiftly, and by January 1818, the Pindaris were expelled from the regions of theMalwa and theChamba .The Pindaris were surrounded on all sides by the great army, which converged upon them from
Bengal , theDeccan and Gujarat under the supreme command ofLord Hastings in person. Sindhia was overawed and forced to sign the treaty ofGwalior , consenting to aid in the extirpation of the Pindaris, whom he had hitherto protected. Since the Pindaris gave a portion of their loot to Maratha leaders, thePeshwa atPune , theBhonsle raja atNagpur and the army of the infantHolkar ofIndore each took up arms, but were separately defeated. The Pindaris themselves offered little opposition. Amir Khan, by far their most powerful leader, accepted the conditions offered to him; he and his descendants became theNawab s of the state of Tonk inRajputana . The rest surrendered or were hunted down, the fate ofChitu , one of the most notorious, being to perish in atiger 's den. These military operations were followed by the pacification of Central India under the administration of SirJohn Malcolm .External links
* [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~clday/pindari.htm Pindari Campaign on the Family History of India website]
* [http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/Ideas/pindaris.html Pindari Society and the Estabilishment of British Paramountcy in India]
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