Pali, Hardoi

In early times, Pali was ruled by the Thatheras, who inhabited the large ruined site called Sandikhera to the west of the modern town.[2] The site was then conquered by Raja Satan, the Sombansi ruler of Satannagar (now Sandi).[2] His son, Raja Harhar (also called Sheosal Deo), granted the place to a family of Gabrs or Kisans who held the office of mace-bearer at his court.[2] However, they rebelled, and Harhar sought assistance to defeat them.[2] He sent his purohit, Gyan Pande, to the Muslim garrison at Kannauj, where Gyan Pande's brother served as a risaldar.[2] An army was sent under the command of Sheikh Mohi-ud-Din Usmani, the son of Haji Salar, to assist Harhar.[2] They were successful, and as a reward, Gyan Pande, his brother, and Sheikh Mohi-ud-Din were each granted 500 bighas of land rent-free.[2] The three of them cleared away a forested area by the riverbank and founded the present town of Pali, with the Hindu Brahmins in the north and the Muslim Sheikhs in the south.[2] According to the traditional account, this happened at the end of the 12th century.[2]

According to the qanungos of Pali, the town had served as the seat of a pargana ever since the Muslim conquest.[2] The pargana existed since the time of Humayun in the 1500s, and it was later listed in the Ain-i-Akbari.[2] The pargana then was much larger — it also included the entire later parganas of Shahabad and Pachhoha, as well as parts of Saromannagar and Katiari.[2]

Under the Nawabs of Awadh, Pali served as the headquarters of the naib of the Sandi-Pali chakla.[2] It lost this administrative significance under the British, and the Muslim neighbourhoods declined.[2]

At the turn of the 20th century, Pali was described as a picturesque town with groves of mango trees all along its western outskirts.[2] It consisted of four mohallas at the time: Qazi Sarai, inhabited by the Sheikhs; Maghrabi, inhabited by Pathans; the mohalla of the Maliks and Pathans; and the Hindu town, where Pande Brahmins predominated.[2] There were seven mosques and four Hindu temples; one of the mosques had been recently built by Risaldar Imtiaz Ali and featured "very showy, florid" architecture.[2] Pali had a police station, a cattle pound, a post office, and an inspection bungalow, along with an upper primary school with 105 students and a military encampment west of the road outside the town.[2]

As of the 2011 India census,[3] Pali had a population of 18,708. Males constituted 52.64% of the population and females constituted 47.35%. Pali had an average literacy rate of 87%, which was higher than the national average of 74%. Literacy for males was 91% and 85% for females. 11% of the population was under 6 years of age.