Dacoits, Dragoons, and Diplomats

Abstract

Marauding chiefs’ upward mobility was one of the prominent characteristics of state building in Western and Central India in the eighteenth century. During the Maratha-Pindari War, while the Company state tried to stop the roving Pindari marauders, for sake of a stable and progressive control over the territories of the declining Maratha state, followed a balanced policy of conciliation and coercion. Taking into account the case of Amir Khan Pindari of Tonk, a reasonably stable Pindari chief, this chapter tries to argue that in the initial phase of expansion, the Company tried to curb the areas of marauding by introducing efficient light cavalry as well as counterbalancing diplomacy of playing one against other. In case of Amir Khan, the competent use of British dragoons contained him in the western parts of the subcontinent, while by using the threat of Amir Khan’s raids, Company’s diplomats proficiently expanded their ‘indirect rule’ over the native princes of central and western India. The chapter further argues that Amir Khan’s reign as Nawab of Tonk marked the end of an era in which the subcontinent’s warlords periodically achieved kingship, and with this military pacification of the Company’s Indian possessions was complete.