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1812-1817 - Pindarry Wars

In the plenitude of the power of the Mahratta chieftains, the Pindarries were attached to, and usually accompanied, the Mahratta armies. By 1809 they appeared to form for the most part a separate and independant body. In 1811 and 1812 the increasing number and depredations of the Pindarries were forced upon the attention of the British government. Before the Mahratta war they had been attached to the Mahratta armies. One body was known as Sindia's Pindarries; another body as Holkar's Pindarries. Since then they had formed separate and independent bodies, but followed the standard of any turbulent chieftain, or desperate adventurer; as well as prosecuted their own separate views of rapine and devastation.

The Pindarries generally invade a country in bodies from four thousand to one thousand each. They advanced to the frontier with such rapidity, that the account of their depredations was generally the first intelligence of their approach. As soon as they passed the frontier, they dispersed in small parties from five hundred to two hundred each. They were not encumbered with tents, bazars, or saddlecloths are their beds; both men and horses are accustomed to endure extraordinary fatigue. They make long and successive marches. They never halt except to refresh themselves, to collect their plunder, and to indulge their passions of lust and cruelty. They subsist themselves and their horses on the grain and provisions which they plunder on their march. They carry off every thing which is valuable and easy of conveyance: what they cannot carry off they wantonly destroy.

They indulged their licentious passions upon the women, and sometimes destroy the miserable females whom they have first robbed, and then polluted by their savage embraces. They beat and wounded and murdered the unfortunate inhabitants. They compelled them to clean their horses, to provide forage, to collect provisions, and to carry such parts of their plunder as are too bulky to be put upon their horses. They seldom left a village without setting fire to the houses and grain.

They avoided fighting; for they came to plunder, not to fight. They have neither encampments nor regular halting places. They moved to a certain distance, and halted a few hours to refresh themselves and their horses, they then resumed their march. Their movements were equally rapid and uncertain. Being dispersed into small bodies, and marching in any direction where they expect plunder, it was difficult to procure certain intelligence of their position or their numbers. They retired with nearly the same rapidity as they approached, and they generally reached their strong-holds, and secured their booty, before a Government can adopt any actual measures to repel them.

As they destroyed every thing which they cannot carry off, and as they exercised the most wanton and inhuman cruelty upou the inhabitants, their depredations are not to be measured by the quantity of booty which they acquire. What they destroyed was generally more valuable to a country than what they carry away. The inhabitants deserted their villages, and sought refuge in the walled towns, and in the recesses of neighboring woods and mountains. It was some time before they venture to return to their villages; and after their return, it was some time before they can resume their labors. Many of the inhabitants abandoned their villages, which are exposed to such sudden attacks and to such merciless spoliations. These were not the only evils ; every incursion of Pindarries affords the means to the Collectors to defraud the Government. The depredations of these freebooters are much exaggerated, to justify the Collector in a larger reduction of the public revenues than would be warranted by the actual loss sustained by those depredations.

It must be evident that no system of defence, and no distribution of troops, could completely protect a country against the occasional depredations of the Pindarries. The employment of infantry in the pursuit of them was quite out of the question. Even the cavalry, regularly equipped, is scarcely capable of overtaking an enemy who is prepared and accustomed to move with the greatest rapidity, and has nothing with him to retard his movements. It has already been observed, that it was very difficult to obtain correct information of the position and numbers of the Pindarries. As they were dispersed into small bodies who were moving rapidly in different directions, intelligence of them was irregular, uncertain, and sometimes contradictory. If one of their light parties parties should be overtaken and destroyed, the other parties may retreat with impunity.

A permanent system of defence would be productive of permanent expense and constant inconvenience, and no system of defence, however well arranged, can cover all the points of an extensive frontier, through which the Pindarries can penetrate into the Deccan. As they march without guns or baggage, every road is accessible and easy.

It would appear that the number of the Pindarries had been gradually increasing for the four years up to 1809, and probably amounted to twentyfive thousand. Their numbers, strength, and resources, continued to increase rapidly. They were already possessed of considerable tracts of land, and their possessions were of course extensive. Some parties of them appeared to be in the service, or at the requisition of Holkar and Scindia; other parties did not appear to be attached to any chieftain. Indeed, the nature of their connexion with Holkar and Scindia appeared vague and indefinite; and the influence and authority of those princes over any of the Pindarries seemed too weak and uncertain.

The existence of those large bands of freebooters held out an encouragement to all the disaffected and turbulent in the neighbouring States. Every horseman who was discharged from the service of a regular government, or who wanted employment and subsistence, joined one of the durrahs" of the Pindarries; so that no vagabond who had a horse and a sword at his command would be at a loss for employment.

Early in 1817, the Pindarries made their second Second incursion into British territories, and retired with British" ° their booty into the dominions of Dowlut Rao KndanL, Sindia. Such a proceeding could not be passed over1817" by the British government in silence without discredit. Moreover, it furnished the British government with an opportunity of fixing Sindia to a declaration of the justice and expediency of the intended punishment of the Pindarries.