Era of the Deccan Sultanates and the Mughal Empire carry out the
Black Hole of Calcutta incident, 20 June 1756. The first clear mention of Pindaris in historical texts occurs in the works of the
Persian historian,
Firishta, who refers to them marching with the
Mughal armies of
Aurangzeb during his 1689 campaign in the
Deccan Plateau. According to Tapan Raychaudhuri et al., the Mughal Army "always had in its train the "Bidari" (as pronounced in
Persian), 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". The Hindu Marathas, in their war against the Mughals, evolved this concept by encouraging the Pindaris not only to plunder the Muslim territories in the north 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. The devastation and disruption by the Pindaris not only strengthened the Marathas, the Pindaris helped weaken and frustrate the Muslim sultans in preserving a stable kingdom they could rule or rely on for revenues.
Maratha era Marathas adopted the Bidaris militia of the earlier era. Their Pindaris were not from any particular religion or caste. Most of the Pindari leaders who plundered for the Marathas were Muslims, such as Gardi Khan and Ghats-u-Din who were employed by the Maratha
Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao. Similarly, Hindu leaders of Pindaris included the Gowaris, Alande, Ghyatalak, Kshirsagar, Ranshing and Thorat. Hindu
ascetics and monks were another pool that volunteered as militia to save their
temples and villages from the Muslim invaders but also disrupted enemy supply lines and provided reconnaissance to the Marathas. According to Randolf Cooper, the Pindaris who served the Marathas were a volunteer militia that included men and their wives, along with enthusiastic followers that sometimes swelled to some 50,000 people at the frontline of a war. They moved swiftly and performed the following duties: destabilize enemy's standing army and state apparatus by creating chaos; isolate enemy armed units by harassing them, provoke and waste enemy resources; break or confuse the logistical and communication lines of the enemy; gather intelligence about the size and armament of the enemy; raid enemy food and fodder to supply resources for the Marathas and deplete the same for the enemy. At a time when the Marathas would mobilize 78,000 cavalry, 27,000 were Pindari Muslim cavalry.
British Empire era Most of the Pindaris in this time were from
Uttar Pradesh and northern parts of
Malwa. The decline of Muslim rule in northern India, for the Indian Muslim elite, meant the destruction of a way of life more than a destruction of livelihood. The
East India Company's disciplined armies based on the well-drilled musketeer provided little employment and had little use for irregular cavalry. Many of these Indian Muslim cavalrymen, seeking employment, would join the Pindaris. These unemployed Muslim soldiers from the land of
Awadh and Rohilkhand in Uttar Pradesh began ravaging and desolating central India, armed with twelve-foot long spears. With the decline of the prestige of Maratha power in India, the Pindaris almost became supreme. After the arrival of the
British East India Company among the chaos of a collapsed Mughal Confederacy and the weakening of the Maratha leadership, the Pindaris became a semi-independent power centred in the area just north of the
Narmada River. 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
nawabs. From November 1817 until 1819, the British military force entered the Malwa and Maratha regions which were traditional Pindari strongholds; according to the
Encyclopædia Britannica, the "Pindaris themselves offered little resistance; most of the leaders surrendered, and their followers dispersed". ==In popular culture==