Mercenaries in India

Mercenaries in India were fighters, primarily peasants, who came from India and abroad, to fight for local rulers in

During the 16th and 17th centuries, a number of mercenaries, arriving from several countries found employment in India. Some of the mercenaries emerged to become independent rulers.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Pindaris were irregular military men who were recruited by the elites of the Mughal Empire and the Deccan sultanates, and later by the Maratha Confederacy. They were disbanded in the Third Anglo-Maratha War.

The Siddi (pronounced [sɪd̪d̪iː]), also known as Sidi, Siddhi, Sheedi, or Habshi, are an ethnic group inhabiting India and Pakistan. Some were merchants, sailors, indentured servants, slaves and mercenaries. The Habshi or Siddis are thought to have arrived in India in 628 AD at the Bharuch port. Several others followed with the first Arab Islamic conquest of the subcontinent in 712 AD.^[3] The latter group are believed to have been soldiers with Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army, and were called Zanjis.

Some Siddis escaped slavery to establish communities in forested areas, and some also established the small Siddi principalities of Janjira State on Janjira Island and Jafarabad State in Kathiawar as early as the twelfth century. A former alternative name of Janjira was Habshan (i.e., land of the Habshis). In the Delhi Sultanate period prior to the rise of the Mughals in India, Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut was a prominent Siddi slave-turned-nobleman who was a close confidant of Razia Sultana (1205–1240 CE). Although this is disputed, he may also have been her lover, but contemporary sources do not indicate that this was necessarily the case.^[4]

Siddis were also brought as slaves by the Deccan Sultanates. Several former slaves rose to high ranks in the military and administration, the most prominent of which was Malik Ambar.

Thousands of Europeans took up service at the courts of rulers all over India.

During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a British convert to Islam named Abdullah Beg was one of the most active insurgents in old Delhi against British rule.^[12] Beg was a former Company soldier, who upon the arrival of the mutineer sepoys on 11 May, self-identified with them and virtually became a leader and advisor to the rebel forces in Delhi.^[12] He was last seen manning the rebel artillery along with another British defector and Muslim convert, Sergeant-Major Gordon.^[12] On account of his faith, Gordon was spared during the massacre of Christians at the outbreak of the uprising.^[12] In due course Gordon was taken to Delhi, where he manned the guns on the northern side of the city walls.^[12]