I would prefer to transpose into the Pirc Defense because I am much more familiar with it and play it when white plays 1.e4 against me.
Dzindzi-indian?

has the sniper gained any popularity at GM level? or is it one of those 'patzers choice' lines
No GMs are regularly playing this in serious classical games. Games exist in the database with GMs on the black side, but you don't see them using it multiple times.

The Pirc Defense is a very solid system and allows black many chances to equalize very early in the game.

Interesting. What are the win percentages from this position?
Database says this is crushing for white (68%). Pruned database of high quality, classical time control master games says it's never played. :)
Only found 1 game in that DB and it's between two guys I've never heard of.
http://chess-db.com/public/game.jsp?id=12800112.627143.44938496.26269
One reason it may not show in my pruned DB is that it requires all games to be a mininum of 25 moves or some such. It's possible that there's a lot of miniatures out there, but even Chessbase Big Database shows only 2 games between two opponents of 2400+.
Interesting nonetheless.

That Pirc line is too risky for Black.
It's also one of the typical cases wher engines evaluate poorly: Stockfish and Houdini will initially say that Black is (much) better, while Komodo evaluates it as approximately equal. The truth is that Black is in trouble, but this is something over the engine's horizon.
Here is a game where a Greek Candidate Master outplayed a former World Champion:
The game is far from perfect, both sides involved, but it does show that the position is dangerous for Black.
Is this Indian? As far as I know all "indians" characterized by 1.d4 Nf6. This looks likea a kind of Modern defense.
I would immediately adopt this if it wouldn't get me Pircs all day long.
The Pirc is awesome. After 2. e4, you can either transpose into the Pirc (2...d6) or Sniper (2...Bg7).