[6] There were an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Pindari militia during the "Gardi-ka-wakt" ("period of unrest") in north-central India[7][8] around 1800–1815 CE, who plundered villages, captured people as slaves for sale,[9] and challenged the authority of local Muslim sultanates, Hindu kingdoms, and the British colonies.

Pindari women would place small icons of horses in a shrine dedicated to Veer before the commencement of their raids, and the men would wear tokens stamped with his image.

[15] 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.

[15] Around the same time, the Italian traveler Niccolao Manucci, in his memoir about the Mughal Empire, wrote about Bederia (Pidari), stating that "these are the first to invade the enemy's territory, where they plunder everything they find.

"[17] 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".

[18] 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.

[14] According to the historian Richard Eaton, plunder of frontier regions was a part of the strategy that contributed wealth and propelled the Sultanate systems in the Indian subcontinent.

[24] The same Pindari-assisted strategy help the Marathas block and reverse the Mughal era gains in South India as far as Gingee and Tiruchirappalli.

[27] 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.

[28] 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.

[3] The Pindaris of the Marathas did not attack the enemy infantry, rather operated by picketing the civilians, outposts, trade routes and the territorial sidelines.

[32] 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.

[34] After the arrival of the British East India Company among the chaos of a collapsed Mughal Empire and the weakening of the Maratha leadership, the Pindaris became a semi-independent power centred in the area just north of the Narmada River.

[15] By late 18th-century, the Maratha Empire had fragmented, the British colonial era had arrived and the Pindaris had transformed from being involved in regional wars to looting for the sake of their own and their leaders' wealth.

In 1816, they undertook an extensive expedition into the East India Company territories around the Guntur district, raiding 339 villages and taking an estimated £100,000 worth of loot.

[2][35][36][38] In addition to the military action, the British East India Company also offered regular employment to some of the Pindari militia by converting them into a separate contingent of its own forces.

[11] Chitu Khan, who was a Muslim of Jat origin born near Delhi, harbored violent anti-British feelings, saying he would "ravage and destroy the country of the English".