Phoolan Devi

Phoolan Devi
Member of Parliament (11th Lok Sabha)
In office 1996–1998
Constituency	Mirzapur
Member of Parliament (13th Lok Sabha)
In office 1999–2001
Constituency	Mirzapur
Personal details
Born	10 August 1963(1963-08-10) Ghura Ka Purwa
Died	25 July 2001(2001-07-25) (aged 37) New Delhi, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Samajwadi Party
Spouse(s)	Putti Lal, Vikram Mallah, Umaid Singh
Occupation	Dacoit (Bandit), Politician

Phoolan Devi (Phulan Devi, Hindi: फूलन देवी) (10 August 1963 – 25 July 2001), popularly known as the "Bandit Queen", was an Indian dacoit (bandit) and later a politician. After being gang-raped by some upper-caste members of her gang, Phoolan Devi turned a bandit, and killed 22 upper-caste villagers in 1981. Following this, she became notorious across India as a bandit.^[1] Later, she surrendered and successfully contested election as a member of the Samajwadi Party. The 1994 film Bandit Queen was based on her life.

Early life

Phoolan was born into the mallah (boatmen) caste,^[2] in the small village of Ghura Ka Purwa (also spelled Gorha ka Purwa) in Jalaun District, Uttar Pradesh.^[3] She was the fourth child of Devi Din and Moola.^[4]

Phoolan's father owned an acre (0.4 hectare) of land with a huge neem tree on it. He hoped that the valuable timber of the tree would enable him to pay dowry for his daughters' marriages.^[5] When Phoolan was eleven years old, her cousin Mayadin came to village and declared himself the head of the family. He sent workers to cut down the neem tree and sell the wood, intending to keep the proceeds for himself.^[6] Although her father submitted with mild protest, Phoolan confronted her cousin. She taunted him, publicly called him a thief and attacked him.^[5] With her elder sister, she staged a sit-in on his land. Even after violence against Phoolan — knocking her out with a brick — she wouldn't relent. In an effort to rid himself of the little nuisance, Mayadin arranged to have her married to a man named Putti Lal, who lived several hundred miles away. Putti Lal was in his thirties; Phoolan was eleven.^[7] Devi claimed in her autobiography that he was a man of "very bad character".

Phoolan's husband raped and mistreated her, but that she was too young to know what was happening. She was returned to her village, being deemed too young to fulfill her duties as a wife. Three years later in 1977, she was returned back to Putti Lal's home. This time she protested, and was returned back to her father's home.^[6] A wife leaving her husband was a serious taboo in the rural areas, and Phoolan was marked as a social outcast. Phoolan continued to challenge her cousin Mayadin, accusing him of thievery. She took him to court for unlawfully holding her father's land, but lost the case.^[6]

In 1979, Mayadin accused Phoolan of stealing small items from his house, and arranged for her arrest by the police. During the three days in jail, she was beaten and raped by the authorities.^[6] She blamed her cousin for the injustice, and developed hatred for men who routinely denigrated women. When released from prison, she was further shunned by her village and her family.

As a dacoit

In 1979, a gang of dacoits abducted Phoolan; some also say that she was not kidnapped but "walked away from her life".^[6] The gang leader, Babu Gujjar, who was an upper-caste Gujjar, wanted to rape her. However, she was protected by Vikram Mallah, the second-in-command of the gang who belonged to Phoolan's caste. One night when Baboo attempted to rape Phoolan, Vikram killed him and assumed the gang leadership. Phoolan became Vikram's second wife. The gang ransacked the village where Phoolan's husband lived. Phoolan stabbed her estranged husband, and dragged him in front of the villagers. The gang left him lying almost dead by the road, with a note as a warning for older men who marry young girls.

Phoolan Devi learned how to use a rifle from Vikram, and participated in the gang's activities across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The activities consisted of ransacking high-caste villages, kidnapping upper-caste landowners for ransom and train robberies. After every crime, Phoolan Devi would visit a Durga temple and thank the goddess for her protection.^[2] The gang hid out in the Chambal ravine.

Behmai incidents

Sometime later, Shri Ram and Lala Ram, two upper-caste dacoit brothers belonging to the Thakur caste, returned to the gang. They were outraged by the killing of the gang leader by a low caste gang member.^[6] Shri Ram would make sexual advances towards Phoolan. This led to tensions between Shri Ram and Vikram, who made him apologize to Phoolan. When the gang would ransack a village, Shri Ram would beat and insult the Mallahs. This displeased the Mallahs in the gang, many of whom left the gang. When Shri Ram got a dozen Thakurs to join the gang, Vikram suggested the gang be divided into two, but Shri Ram refused. Shortly afterwards, Shri Ram and other Thakur members in the gang attempted to kill Phoolan and Vikram, who managed to escape. However, later they successfully killed Vikram, abducted Phoolan and locked her up in the Behmai village.^[2]

Phoolan Devi was beatend and raped by several men in Behmai.^[6] After three weeks, she managed to escape with two other Mallahs from Vikram's gang, helped by a low-caste villager. She gathered a gang of Mallahs, that she led with Man Singh, a member of Vikram's former gang. The gang carried out a series of violent robberies in north and central India, mainly targeting upper-caste people. Some say that Phoolan Devi targeted only the upper-caste people and shared the loot with the lower-caste people, but the Indian authorities insist this is a myth.^[7]

Seventeen months after her escape from Behmai, Phoolan returned to the village, to take her revenge. On 14 February 1981, Phoolan and her gang marched into the Behmai village, dressed as police officers. The Thakurs in the village were preparing for a wedding. Phoolan's gang demanded that her kidnappers be produced, along with all the valuables in the village. Details of what exactly happened are not available, but Phoolan is said to have recognized two men who earlier had sexually assaulted her and murdered her lover. When Phoolan's gang failed to find all the kidnappers after an exhaustive search, she ordered her gang members to line up all the upper-caste Thakur men in the village and shoot them. The dacoits opened fire and killed twenty-two Thakur men, most of whom were not involved in her kidnapping or rape. Later, Phoolan Devi claimed that she herself didn't kill anybody in Behmai – all the killings were carried out by her gang members.^[2]

The Behmai massacre was followed by a massive police manhunt that failed to locate Phoolan Devi. V. P. Singh, the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, resigned in the wake of the Behmai killings.^[8] Phoolan Devi began to be called the Bandit Queen. Dolls of Phoolan Devi dressed as Hindu goddess Durga were sold in market towns in Uttar Pradesh. She was glorified by much of the Indian media.^[7]

Surrender and jail term

Two years after the Behmai massacre the police had still not captured Phoolan Devi. The Indira Gandhi Government decided to negotiate a surrender. By this time, Phoolan Devi was in poor health and most of her gang members were dead. In February 1983, she agreed to surrender to the authorities. However, she said that she didn't trust the Uttar Pradesh police and insisted that she would only surrender to the Madhya Pradesh Police. She also insisted that she would lay down her arms only before Mahatma Gandhi's picture and the Hindu goddess Durga, not to the police.^[9] She also required the following conditions:^{[citation needed]}

• She would not get the death penalty
• Her gang members should not get more than eight years in jail
• Her brother should be given a government job
• Her father should receive a plot of land
• Her entire family should be escorted by the police to her surrender ceremony

An unarmed police chief met her at a hiding place in the Chambal ravines. They walked their way to Bhind, where she laid her rifle before the portraits of Gandhi and Goddess Durga. The onlookers included a crowd of around 10,000 people and 300 police and the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh. 300 police personnel were waiting to arrest her and other members of her gang who surrendered at the same time.

Phoolan Devi was charged with 48 crimes, including 30 charges of dacoity (banditry) and kidnapping. Her trial was delayed for 11 years, which she served in the prison. During this period, she was operated on for ovarian cysts and ended up with an involuntary hysterectomy.^[2] She was finally released on parole in 1994 after persuasion by Vishambhar Prasad Nishad, the leader of the Nishadha fishermen community. The Government of Uttar Pradesh, led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, withdrew all the cases against her.

Movie and autobiography

Shekhar Kapur made a movie Bandit Queen (1994) about Phoolan Devi's life up to her 1983 surrender. Although Phoolan Devi is a heroine in the film, she fiercely disputed its accuracy and fought to get it banned in India. She even threatened to immolate herself outside a theater if the film were not withdrawn. Eventually, she settled a suit against the filmmakers for about $60,000. The film brought her international recognition. At this time, she was re-indicted for murder and other charges.

Though she was illiterate, Phoolan composed her autobiography titled The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey From Peasant to International Legend, with help of two international authors, Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali.

Political career

In the 1990s, Phoolan Devi served as the president of Eklavya Sena, an organization formed by the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ganga Charan Rajput to "protect the weaker sections".^[10] Under Phoolan's leadership, the group aimed at teaching lower-caste people the art of self-defense. During this period, Phoolan married Umaid Singh, her sister's husband and a New Delhi business contractor.

In 1996, Phoolan Devi contested for the 11th Lok Sabha from Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh as a Samajwadi Party candidate and was elected. She was re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.^[11][12] During her election campaign, she was criticized by the women widowed in the Behmai massacre. Kshatriya Swabhimaan Andolan Samanvay Committee (KSASC), a Kshatriya organization, held a statewide campaign to protest against her. In a 1999 interview, she stated that her political objectives included providing drinking water, electricity, schools and hospitals to the poor. She also emphasized on equal status for women, stressing on their education and employment.^[13]

During her career as a Member of the Indian Parliament, Phoolan got a train stopped at unscheduled stops to meet her acquaintances in Uttar Pradesh. The railway minister, Ram Vilas Paswan played down the train incident and ordered only a nominal enquiry. Once, she visited the Gwalior jail (where she was imprisoned) to meet her former inmates. When the jail officers didn't let her in due to the visiting hours rules, she abused them. Later, a suspension order was issued against the jail officials involved in the incident, without any explanation.^[9]

In 1998, Phoolan Devi claimed she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by some members of the British Parliament.^[14] She lost a bid for reelection in 1998, but was returned to office the following year.

Assassination

On 25 July 2001, Phoolan Devi was fatally shot as she got out of her car at the gate of her New Delhi residence. The assailants also wounded her bodyguard and escaped in an auto rickshaw.

Sher Singh Rana, Dheeraj Rana, and Rajbir were accused of the crime. Sher Singh Rana allegedly surrendered in Dehradun. He confessed to the murder, saying he was avenging the deaths of 22 Kshatriyas at Behmai. He escaped from Tihar Jail in 2004, but was captured in April 2006 from Kolkata and sent to Rohini Jail, Delhi. The same year, the KSASC decided to honor Rana for "upholding the dignity of the Kshatriya community" and "drying the tears of the widows of Behmai".^[8]

On 19 January 2007, Balender Singh, Phoolan's bodyguard who had been witness to the shooting, identified Dheeraj and Sher Singh as the people who had fired on him and Phoolan respectively. Balender Singh was cross-examined on 2 February 2007.

References

1. ^ "The queen is dead". The Guardian. 2001-07-26. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,527406,00.html. Retrieved 2011-11-18. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Phoolan Devi, India's Bandit Queen". http://web.archive.org/web/20051228081825/www.goodbyemag.com/jul01/devi.html. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 
3. ^ Henry Scholberg (1994). A Hindi movie. Indus (HarperCollins India). p. 24. ISBN 9788172230975. 
4. ^ India today, Volume 26. Thomson Living Media India Ltd., 2001
5. ^ ^{a b} Jan Stradling (2011). "12: Phoolan Devi - 'Bandit Queen', freedom fighter, politcian". Good Girls Don’t Make History. Pier. ISBN 9781742666235. 
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} John Arquilla (2011). Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits. 9781566638326. pp. 245-251. 
7. ^ ^{a b c} "Phoolan Devi: Champion of the poor". BBC News. 2001-07-25. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1456441.stm. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "Kshatriya Samaj to honour Phoolan's killer". The Tribune, Chandigarh. 2006-05-21. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060501/nation.htm#5. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Anuja Pande. "Phoolan Power". http://people.virginia.edu/~pm9k/gifs/ZoForth/Pholan/po. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 
10. ^ Srikanta Ghosh (1997). Indian democracy derailed politics and politicians. APH Publishing. p. 145. ISBN 9788170248668. 
11. ^ Biographical Sketch of Member of Parliament - 13th Lok Sabha - Phoolan Devi
12. ^ "Phoolan Devi", Britannica Online
13. ^ "1999 Interview with Catherine Pawasarat of Kyoto Journal"
14. ^ "10 Questions: Phoolan Devi". Outlook India. http://www.outlookindia.com/10question.asp?fodname=19980504&secname=National. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 

Further reading

Books on Phoolan Devi

• Devi: The Bandit Queen, by Richard Shears, Isobelle Gidley. Published by Allen & Unwin, 1984. ISBN 0049200976.
• India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi, by Mala Sen. Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. ISBN 0-04-440888-9.
• I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India's Bandit Queen, by Phoolan Devi, Marie-Thérèse Cuny, Paul Rambali. Published by Little, Brown and Co., 1996. ISBN 0316879606.
• Moxham, Roy (3 June 2010). Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me. Rider. ISBN 9781846041822. 
• Phoolan Devi, with Marie-Therese Cuny, and Paul Rambali, "The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend" Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2006 ISBN 978-1-59228-641-6
• Phoolan Devi - by N.Pugazhendhi, Coimbatore in TAMIL translated from Malayalam.

Other sources

• Gabriel, Karen (2009). "Reading Rape: Sexual Difference, Representational Excess and Narrative Containment. pp. 9-16.
• India's Bandit Queen by Mary Anne Weaver
• Peacock, J. Sunita Phoolan Devi: The Primordial Tradition of the Bandit Queen. in: Transnationalism and the Asian American Heroine: Essays on Literature, Film, Myth and Media. pp. 187-195.

External links

• A collection of links related to Phoolan Devi (the page is quite old, and many of the links are broken).
• Biography in short
• The Phoolan Devi Murder
• Crime Library article on Phoolan Devi

Persondata
Name	Devi, Phoolan
Alternative names	फूलन देवी
Short description	Indian dacoit
Date of birth	10 August 1963
Place of birth	Gorha Ka Purwa, Uttar Pradesh, India
Date of death	25 July 2001
Place of death	New Delhi, India