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I, Phoolan Devi : The Autobiography of India's Bandit Queen
Phoolan Devi was born into a poor, low-caste family in Uttar Pradesh, living in a world that gave more respect to a stray dog than to a woman. At 11, she was married off and endured beatings, rapes and persecution. She survived being kidnapped by bandits and became one of them, learning how to shoot like a man. She also found love for the first time, but her lover was brutally murdered. Without his protection, she was paraded naked through villages and gang-raped; but she survived and for three years claimed retribution for herself and all low-caste women, before negotiating her own surrender. After 11 years in prison, she is now free to tell her own story.
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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November 8, 2018
Phoolan Devi will forever be my most loved, cherished and valued book of all time. I have read this book four times and plan on reading it again because, every couple of years, I change and view things differently. My experience reading this book has been different on all four occasions and I just fall more and more in love with this woman and her struggle. She is the most emotionally powerful human being I have ever heard of and I will always hold her as THE role model for women and young girls.
This book should be compulsory to read, especially with what is happening in India today with female infanticide, rape and violence against women. India is a great marker of the condition of women today and the state of patriarchy - it is the second largest population in the world and an economically strong developing country but women are still treated worse than cattle. I think this book is a great reminder of the strength and passion we as women have to have for justice in order to take solid steps towards gender equality.
Please read; man or woman. Read it and confront your own demons. Empower yourself. Recharge your passion and thirst for life and justice.
This book should be compulsory to read, especially with what is happening in India today with female infanticide, rape and violence against women. India is a great marker of the condition of women today and the state of patriarchy - it is the second largest population in the world and an economically strong developing country but women are still treated worse than cattle. I think this book is a great reminder of the strength and passion we as women have to have for justice in order to take solid steps towards gender equality.
Please read; man or woman. Read it and confront your own demons. Empower yourself. Recharge your passion and thirst for life and justice.
April 18, 2010
this is one of my all-time favorite books. phoolan is the inspiration of so many of the characters in my own stories. i learned how to write a story that is relentless from this book; i learned how to write a WOMAN that is relentless from this book. her story is evidence that a woman born in complete bondage can still have the innate and natural will to fight for her freedom, that that WANT of freedom is not taught.
every few years, i reread this book. it's some serious heavy sh*t. it's also the best telling of phoolan's story (there are biographies, but this one rings the most true, to me).
every few years, i reread this book. it's some serious heavy sh*t. it's also the best telling of phoolan's story (there are biographies, but this one rings the most true, to me).
January 2, 2018
I read this book to clear some doubts. When I watched ‘Bandit Queen’ by Shekhar Kapoor, I’d felt that something was wrong. That it was an upper caste, male narrative. Then I got to know that Phoolan Devi had moved court against the release of the film. So I bought her autobiography. Along with it, I bought ‘Outlaw’ : India’s Bandit Queen and me by Roy Moxham. My research list has grown bigger. I have more books to read before I – I don’t know – change the world?
What I found out, was that Shekhar Kapoor was being a complete mansplainer when he made the film. Roy Moxham was obnoxious in narrating ‘India’s Bandit Queen’s story.
The preface is succinct.
‘This book is the first testimony that a woman of my community has succeeded in making public. It is an outstretched hand of courage to the humiliated and downtrodden, in the hope that a life like my own may never repeat itself. I should be dead today, but I am alive. I took my fate into my hands. I was born an underdog, but I became a queen.
Phoolan Devi
New Delhi, 1995’
Sexual harassment, rape, gender
In the prologue, Phoolan Devi speaks of the house she was married into, where she was raped as a child.
‘…The only good thing there was the food. I was allowed to eat four chapatis with every meal, and I only wished I could have saved some for my sisters and my brother…’
A child trying to protect herself from the abuser ‘husband’:
‘…I would wear my skirt and my petticoat as well as my blouse and wrap my sari over that, and then tie it so tightly he wouldn’t be able to undo it…’
In Chapter 8 we see how the society reacts to a child coming back home after she was raped by her husband. She was instructed not to disclose what her husband had done to her to anyone.
‘The neighbours entered and began to talk with my parents. Some of them said I ought to go back because it was dishonourable for a wife not to live with her husband. Others thought I should wait a few years at least. They all stared at me as though I had changed somehow in their eyes, and they were trying to work out what it was. I thought they couldn’t have known of the tortures I had been made to suffer. But I obeyed my mother and said nothing, without understanding why it would be me who would have the bad reputation, while he was the one who beat me and tortured me…’
Chapter 9
‘. . . the whole village was busy deciding my fate – as though I belonged to all of them.’
Chapter 10
‘. . . Nobody knew the real ages of the women of our villages. There was nothing to mark the time apart from the lines that formed on their faces. . .’
‘. . . Mayadin protested to my father that marrying me to another man would be a stain on his good name. When it came to land, we weren’t part of his family, but when it came to the disgrace of being a woman without a husband, I belonged to his family again. The men made the decisions and the women could weep however much they liked, their fears and hopes would always be carried away like the walls washed away by the rain.’
Chapter 15
Here we see how courts are not people friendly. More specifically, not women friendly. See how the language itself is a problem for people seeking justice. About the judge who was hearing the case against Phoolan accusing her of robbing Mayadin’s house, she says,
‘He made some more comments in English to the other judges that I didn’t understand. Even in my own language, he spoke too well for me to understand much of what he was saying.’
After getting bail, while returning home,
‘In Kalpi, I had to ask my way several times as I couldn’t remember the road back to our village. As soon as they realised I was alone, men tried to take me aside. One of them threatened me with a knife, and I ran until I was out of breath, fearing that at any moment, I would turn the corner and see the red and blue sign of the police station again.’
Chapter 17
After Phoolan and her family refused to pay the Sarpanch for drawing water from the well, she was again raped by upper caste thakurs.
After that, again her mother beat her. She said to Phoolan,
‘. . . she started beating me with her fists, yelling and cursing hysterically. It would be better if you died this time!’
And again, Phoolan describes what the saddening psychology behind it.
‘. . . I knew she didn’t want me dead, she was only beating me because she was powerless. It was all she could do. I was the only person she could beat and curse.’
Phoolan had to go to the police station alone to report rape. About it she says,
‘. . . I didn’t know how to tell a good policeman from one who beats and rapes, . . .’
She, therefore, went back to the police officers who themselves had raped her. And what happened there?
‘. . . He asked me for my name, and the first policeman began to type a report while the deputy superintendent asked me questions. But when I started describing the thakurs and telling him I had recognised some of them, the superintendent stood up and slapped me.
‘Even if they raped you, so what? Don’t you have any shame at all, coming here to accuse them?’
He had me thrown out into the dusty street.’
After this incident, the thakurs told people that Phoolan was a ‘fallen woman.’ People started coming to her house asking for her, to rape her.
‘We kept our front door locked. I had to hide all the time. I could no longer sleep at my house. I used to sleep in a tree instead, hidden up in the branches among the monkeys and birds, with fear knotting my gut and tears constantly in my eyes. There were so many thakurs coming around looking for me that the villagers began to worry about the safety of their wives and daughters and I was the one who was blamed. . .’
In Chapter 18:
‘I was even more afraid of thakurs than I was of the police. When I had asked the police to keep me in the lock-up, they had just joked that they would be only too pleased to keep me there . . .’
When she was taken by the bandits from her place,
‘. . . I found myself praying only that they wouldn’t rape me before they killed me.’
Later,
‘. . . And it seemed they couldn’t agree on whether to rape me or kill me.’
After Vickram killed Baboo when he was trying to rape Phoolan, it was written on a scrap of paper that ‘Baboo was killed in the name of Phoolan Devi.’ Phoolan was told that it was the rule. Now see how the notion of ‘gratitude’ works. Phoolan hoped that they would then let her go.
‘Bare Lal made a face. ‘he has killed in your name, Phoolan. You owe him your life. You must obey him now. Who knows what he will ask of you. You must be patient.’
An argument that we have all heard too many times. It means that the act that the person did, was not because they thought it required action but because they’d get something in return for it. There cannot be a feebler political stance.
The same kind of abuse was what was happening in the marriage that happened between Vickram and Phoolan. The first thing Vickram did after marrying Phoolan is make the members of the gang take a pledge that he shall be their leader from then and Phoolan shall be regarded as a mother or sister. ‘Protection’ was linked to marriage and it was yet another power play that enforced more gratitude on Phoolan.
Before marriage, Vickram asked Phoolan if she liked him. Look at what she felt at the time:
‘. . . I giggled, and I began to cry. I couldn’t help myself. I was disappointed and excited all at once. I had expected him to say I was free to go, perhaps even to bring me back in triumph, but I was still his prisoner, and I had no idea what he meant by his question.’
This is clearly abuse. Phoolan was around sixteen and this man, who was holding her captive was asking her if she ‘liked him’. And look how dangerous this is because what happens in the mind of a sixteen year old when she is shown even some kindness in the midst of abuse.
‘He came towards me and stroked my hair gently. ‘Don’t cry,’ he said. ‘Why are you crying? I’m not going to hurt you.’
His gesture was new to me as well. Nobody other than my mother and father had ever shown me tenderness. No one had ever touched me like that, certainly no man.’
And again here,
‘ . . . I had never talked to anyone like that before, for such a long time. I had never talked to anyone at all. It was always orders: come here, do that, shut up. Or insults. Talking was new to me, saying what was on your mind or in your heart, saying the things that choked you, expressing the pain that twisted your heart.’
When people mentioned ‘love,’ Phoolan didn’t understand what they were talking about. It was also because of the difference in dialect but I felt that it was true in the meaning of love as a concept itself. When they uttered the word ‘love’, Phoolan ‘thought it must have been something sweet and delicious because they said it would make me forget the bad things that happened to me.
‘. . . In my village, we spoke Bhundelkhandi, and Vickram spoke a dialect called Chaurasi. Many of the words were different, and I had trouble understanding him. I didn’t know the word love in their dialect. I thought it must be something to eat – because it was something you gave, something sweet and delicious from the way they said it. But I understood his gestures . . .’
This is perhaps the reason why while looking back at it all, as an adult, she thought this about the whole incident:
‘ . . . But many years later, thinking about it, I would ask myself why didn’t this man, if he loved me as he said, just let me go? Then I wouldn’t have become a bandit like him. I would have had a family, children, cattle in the shed, a fire in the hearth.
Or I would have died, and none of it would have mattered.’
In Chapter 21, she speaks about the way she felt about this ‘marriage’ with Vickram.
‘But to tell a man I loved him . . .
No, I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t bring myself to believe I belonged to him, that he was going to protect me.
I had told him I was sleepy, but I couldn’t sleep. I lay with my eyes wide open, staring in the dark. He had promised he wouldn’t hurt me, but she was strnger than me and he was a man, and a man for me meant rape. . .’
Soon, Phoolan realized that Vickram was already married and had children in that marriage. When Phoolan got angry with Vickram for keeping that from her, when she asked how many girls he had kidnapped and then married, he and his friends and relatives made Phoolan believe that it was a normal practice.
Chapter 22
Phoolan Devi speaks as a mallah woman. When she went to take revenge on Mayadin, Vickram told her that she couldn’t do that to someone from her own community. They could loot a thakur but not a mallah. About these rules that were essentially made by men, she says,
‘It was to these rules, the unwritten code, that I owed my life. But I still couldn’t accept it, I couldn’t abide by it, because I was a woman. I had no place in this hierarchy of caste. I was lower than all of them, and the demons I had to slay were more devious. Whatever caste they belonged to, they were all men.’
And in Chapter 23, the following portion further explains what she thought about it
‘I watched a little bird with blue wings flutter away from the shore. He didn’t have to thank anybody except God for the insects he ate; he could sing and fly higher than the tallest trees, up towards the light; he could fly into houses and peck at grain in the stores, and drink water from the stream if he was thirsty. He didn’t have to obey the rules of men. But I still did. Compared to the bird, I was powerless.’
After she killed Mansukh, because Mayadin had escaped, the police put a reward on her head. About it, she says,
‘But what they called a crime, I called justice.’
And then, when she was really going to kill Mayadin, when she got a chance to, she was not let to do that by the males in her gang. Her father said the same thing. Chapter 23
‘ . . . Madhav woudn’t give me back my rifle, and the jackal Mayadin was trying to pay me his respects.’
When Mayadin offered Phoolan money and begged for her forgiveness, she rejected it this way:
‘Get out of here with your filthy rupees!’ I said. ‘I’ll give you your miserable life for nothing, because that’s all it’s worth, nothing!’
But Vickram accepted the money.
‘Vickram pocketed the fifty thousand rupees Mayadin had brought.’
Phoolan felt that she should not have listened to her father and that she shouldn’t have spared Mayadin. She felt that ‘There was no justice’ for her after all.
Chapter 25,
‘It was an advantage being eighteen years old but looking only fifteen. In a petticoat and lunghi I resembled any other village girl on her way to wash. They didn’t give me a second glance. Phoolan Devi had a reputation as a dangerous dacoit. Just like the villager in the fields, the police too imagined her to be twice as tall as me, armed to the teeth and galloping across the fields on a white horse.’
Chapter 26
‘. . . I only knew how to read faces and how to understand what people said. I could tell the difference between an honest face and an untrustworthy one, between a promise that would be kept and one that would be broken, but that wasn’t enough.’
This is important because in many narratives about Phoolan Devi, one finds a narrative of Phoolan as a naïve woman, who did not know how to make decisions for herself. The truth is that she knew all it took to command people, wage wars and execute ambushes.
Later, in Chapter 35, while she was having talks with politicians about surrendering, she lays emphasis on this fact again.
‘It all seemed to be easy enough for them to understand, it was all just politics, but I had only my instincts to rely on for the truth. My struggle for survival had taught me to be wary. I didn’t know anything about politics, governments or states. All I knew was what I felt in my bones.’
And what a woman feels in her bones is important no matter how irrelevant patriarchy tells her it is. This could be the reason why, during her surrender, the man on the microphone was very nervous and worded it thus, as seen in Chapter 36
‘Phoolan Devi will now lay down her arms.,’ a man announced in the microphone. ‘The government has taken into account her decision to surrender of her own free will. We have accepted her conditions, er . . . No. She has accepted our conditions.
It was the same man who had made the mistake earlier. I couldn’t help myself. I smiled.’
She continues, about the plight of women,
‘. . . A woman couldn’t live alone in the city. She would be easy prey. Without a husband, she would be singled out, and without a family she would be considered a prostitute. With no one to defend her, any man could take her.’
After murdering Vickram, Shri Ram took Phoolan captive and raped her. He then made everyone in the village rape her. In the following portions you can clearly see how rape is a power crime and what goes on in the mind of the abuser.
‘I heard Shri Ram encouraging them, telling them to use me, to take advantage of me while they had me tied up like that.’
In Chapter 29 we see how Phoolan evolved with her experiences. She learned gender politics while she was in Vickram’s gang and you can see it in the decisions she took while she formed her own gang in order to take revenge.
‘. . . Balwan had about a dozen men. He offered to let me join him, saying we could run the gang together, but I didn’t want to get into a situation like that again. I didn’t need anyone’s protection this time and I wasn’t going to take orders from anybody. I was going to be the leader, I was the one who was going to be obeyed from now on.’
. . .
‘Since I didn’t want to join him, Balwan proposed to lend me money for arms and supplies. But I didn’t want to owe anything to anyone either. I knew that to be able to assert your will, independence was essential.’
I thought of many women who had said the same. M.D Radhika, feminist and ex-professor, Inji Pennu, blogger, Kani Kusruti, actor. I believe in this. Phoolan did too, and because people who asked for independence were not considered ‘womanly’ she put it this way.
‘. . . It’s simple, Balwan,’ I explained. ‘I don’t consider myself a woman any longer. I don’t want anybody’s protection, nor their help. I want to control everything myself. If I take a gun from you, I’ll pay you for it.’
Truly, this is the only way women can function in this society, in every sphere and profession even now.
There is also a portion that reminded me of the violence people do online to women. A very common phenomenon is that of addressing women ‘chechi’ [a term used to address one’s elder sister but becomes sexually coloured and sexist while in a debate. A sexually coloured form of ‘dear’ ‘darling’ ‘sweety’ used to put women down in online and offline discussions. So it brought a smile to my face when I read this incident where Phoolan was robbing a rich landowner who was robbing peasants.
‘No, no Bahanji, I haven’t done any harm. I haven’t hurt anyone. It’s my right!’
‘Don’t call me your sister! Where is the loot?’
Later in Chapter 32, she talks of how she gave the loot money to women. Another reason why representation is important.
‘Most of all, I liked to be able to give money to women. I very rarely gave it to men. They could work in the fields, go from village to village, find money somehow, but not the women. Nobody helped the women, not even their husbands. They didn’t give the women a rupee. Without money, women were forced to suffer hunger and humiliation, and even sell their bodies like sacks of flour, while the men spent their money drinking and gambling.’
Phoolan Devi also speaks about the fame and importance she received because she was a bandit. The Chief Minister of the state had to resign because of her. She was a living legend. And listen to what she had to say about it. In Chapter 33, she says,
‘. . .The radio and newspapers wouldn’t stop talking about me.
If only they had talked about me before, I thought, when I was being mistreated and I was the one crying out for justice. But the bad things done by the poor were all anyone ever talked about, not the bad things done to them.’
I thought of the six women who had gone to meet Hadiya. When they were released on bail, social media was busy calling them attention seekers. When will the world realize that people don’t enjoy it and the fame they are talking about is a result of their silence, the added collective silence of the society.
In Chapter 35, we can see how oppressed people look for similar people all around them. Phoolan wanted to meet Indira Gandhi, who was the Prime Minister then. She had a reason.
‘I had heard of her and I had admired Mrs. Gandhi. She was a woman, like me, after all, in a world of men. I knew nothing about her life but I knew she must have had to overcome many enemies, like me. . .’
She also fought for the women in jail when she was there. In Chapter 38, she says,
‘For a time, there was a prison director at Gwalior who was as corrupt and heartless as them. He let the madwomen mix with the common prisoners and die like dogs, their skinny bodies eaten by rats. I couldn’t rest after seeing their half-eaten corpses. All the time I was there I continued to rebel and fight. I protested every day against the filth, the laziness and the corruption. I went on hunger strike twice, trying to obtain some decency for us, and I nearly died the second time but nobody cared.’
Phoolan Devi had to spend more time in jail than what was agreed upon during the time of her surrender. Dacoits who had surrendered before her were all let off before her. ‘Even in jail, a woman had to wait in silence.’ She said about it. It was after eleven years that she was finally out of jail.
Caste
Caste is the context in which Phoolan’s story has been told. Her uncle Bihari was from the mallah caste and according to Phoolan http://kunjilacinema.blogspot.in/2018...
What I found out, was that Shekhar Kapoor was being a complete mansplainer when he made the film. Roy Moxham was obnoxious in narrating ‘India’s Bandit Queen’s story.
The preface is succinct.
‘This book is the first testimony that a woman of my community has succeeded in making public. It is an outstretched hand of courage to the humiliated and downtrodden, in the hope that a life like my own may never repeat itself. I should be dead today, but I am alive. I took my fate into my hands. I was born an underdog, but I became a queen.
Phoolan Devi
New Delhi, 1995’
Sexual harassment, rape, gender
In the prologue, Phoolan Devi speaks of the house she was married into, where she was raped as a child.
‘…The only good thing there was the food. I was allowed to eat four chapatis with every meal, and I only wished I could have saved some for my sisters and my brother…’
A child trying to protect herself from the abuser ‘husband’:
‘…I would wear my skirt and my petticoat as well as my blouse and wrap my sari over that, and then tie it so tightly he wouldn’t be able to undo it…’
In Chapter 8 we see how the society reacts to a child coming back home after she was raped by her husband. She was instructed not to disclose what her husband had done to her to anyone.
‘The neighbours entered and began to talk with my parents. Some of them said I ought to go back because it was dishonourable for a wife not to live with her husband. Others thought I should wait a few years at least. They all stared at me as though I had changed somehow in their eyes, and they were trying to work out what it was. I thought they couldn’t have known of the tortures I had been made to suffer. But I obeyed my mother and said nothing, without understanding why it would be me who would have the bad reputation, while he was the one who beat me and tortured me…’
Chapter 9
‘. . . the whole village was busy deciding my fate – as though I belonged to all of them.’
Chapter 10
‘. . . Nobody knew the real ages of the women of our villages. There was nothing to mark the time apart from the lines that formed on their faces. . .’
‘. . . Mayadin protested to my father that marrying me to another man would be a stain on his good name. When it came to land, we weren’t part of his family, but when it came to the disgrace of being a woman without a husband, I belonged to his family again. The men made the decisions and the women could weep however much they liked, their fears and hopes would always be carried away like the walls washed away by the rain.’
Chapter 15
Here we see how courts are not people friendly. More specifically, not women friendly. See how the language itself is a problem for people seeking justice. About the judge who was hearing the case against Phoolan accusing her of robbing Mayadin’s house, she says,
‘He made some more comments in English to the other judges that I didn’t understand. Even in my own language, he spoke too well for me to understand much of what he was saying.’
After getting bail, while returning home,
‘In Kalpi, I had to ask my way several times as I couldn’t remember the road back to our village. As soon as they realised I was alone, men tried to take me aside. One of them threatened me with a knife, and I ran until I was out of breath, fearing that at any moment, I would turn the corner and see the red and blue sign of the police station again.’
Chapter 17
After Phoolan and her family refused to pay the Sarpanch for drawing water from the well, she was again raped by upper caste thakurs.
After that, again her mother beat her. She said to Phoolan,
‘. . . she started beating me with her fists, yelling and cursing hysterically. It would be better if you died this time!’
And again, Phoolan describes what the saddening psychology behind it.
‘. . . I knew she didn’t want me dead, she was only beating me because she was powerless. It was all she could do. I was the only person she could beat and curse.’
Phoolan had to go to the police station alone to report rape. About it she says,
‘. . . I didn’t know how to tell a good policeman from one who beats and rapes, . . .’
She, therefore, went back to the police officers who themselves had raped her. And what happened there?
‘. . . He asked me for my name, and the first policeman began to type a report while the deputy superintendent asked me questions. But when I started describing the thakurs and telling him I had recognised some of them, the superintendent stood up and slapped me.
‘Even if they raped you, so what? Don’t you have any shame at all, coming here to accuse them?’
He had me thrown out into the dusty street.’
After this incident, the thakurs told people that Phoolan was a ‘fallen woman.’ People started coming to her house asking for her, to rape her.
‘We kept our front door locked. I had to hide all the time. I could no longer sleep at my house. I used to sleep in a tree instead, hidden up in the branches among the monkeys and birds, with fear knotting my gut and tears constantly in my eyes. There were so many thakurs coming around looking for me that the villagers began to worry about the safety of their wives and daughters and I was the one who was blamed. . .’
In Chapter 18:
‘I was even more afraid of thakurs than I was of the police. When I had asked the police to keep me in the lock-up, they had just joked that they would be only too pleased to keep me there . . .’
When she was taken by the bandits from her place,
‘. . . I found myself praying only that they wouldn’t rape me before they killed me.’
Later,
‘. . . And it seemed they couldn’t agree on whether to rape me or kill me.’
After Vickram killed Baboo when he was trying to rape Phoolan, it was written on a scrap of paper that ‘Baboo was killed in the name of Phoolan Devi.’ Phoolan was told that it was the rule. Now see how the notion of ‘gratitude’ works. Phoolan hoped that they would then let her go.
‘Bare Lal made a face. ‘he has killed in your name, Phoolan. You owe him your life. You must obey him now. Who knows what he will ask of you. You must be patient.’
An argument that we have all heard too many times. It means that the act that the person did, was not because they thought it required action but because they’d get something in return for it. There cannot be a feebler political stance.
The same kind of abuse was what was happening in the marriage that happened between Vickram and Phoolan. The first thing Vickram did after marrying Phoolan is make the members of the gang take a pledge that he shall be their leader from then and Phoolan shall be regarded as a mother or sister. ‘Protection’ was linked to marriage and it was yet another power play that enforced more gratitude on Phoolan.
Before marriage, Vickram asked Phoolan if she liked him. Look at what she felt at the time:
‘. . . I giggled, and I began to cry. I couldn’t help myself. I was disappointed and excited all at once. I had expected him to say I was free to go, perhaps even to bring me back in triumph, but I was still his prisoner, and I had no idea what he meant by his question.’
This is clearly abuse. Phoolan was around sixteen and this man, who was holding her captive was asking her if she ‘liked him’. And look how dangerous this is because what happens in the mind of a sixteen year old when she is shown even some kindness in the midst of abuse.
‘He came towards me and stroked my hair gently. ‘Don’t cry,’ he said. ‘Why are you crying? I’m not going to hurt you.’
His gesture was new to me as well. Nobody other than my mother and father had ever shown me tenderness. No one had ever touched me like that, certainly no man.’
And again here,
‘ . . . I had never talked to anyone like that before, for such a long time. I had never talked to anyone at all. It was always orders: come here, do that, shut up. Or insults. Talking was new to me, saying what was on your mind or in your heart, saying the things that choked you, expressing the pain that twisted your heart.’
When people mentioned ‘love,’ Phoolan didn’t understand what they were talking about. It was also because of the difference in dialect but I felt that it was true in the meaning of love as a concept itself. When they uttered the word ‘love’, Phoolan ‘thought it must have been something sweet and delicious because they said it would make me forget the bad things that happened to me.
‘. . . In my village, we spoke Bhundelkhandi, and Vickram spoke a dialect called Chaurasi. Many of the words were different, and I had trouble understanding him. I didn’t know the word love in their dialect. I thought it must be something to eat – because it was something you gave, something sweet and delicious from the way they said it. But I understood his gestures . . .’
This is perhaps the reason why while looking back at it all, as an adult, she thought this about the whole incident:
‘ . . . But many years later, thinking about it, I would ask myself why didn’t this man, if he loved me as he said, just let me go? Then I wouldn’t have become a bandit like him. I would have had a family, children, cattle in the shed, a fire in the hearth.
Or I would have died, and none of it would have mattered.’
In Chapter 21, she speaks about the way she felt about this ‘marriage’ with Vickram.
‘But to tell a man I loved him . . .
No, I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t bring myself to believe I belonged to him, that he was going to protect me.
I had told him I was sleepy, but I couldn’t sleep. I lay with my eyes wide open, staring in the dark. He had promised he wouldn’t hurt me, but she was strnger than me and he was a man, and a man for me meant rape. . .’
Soon, Phoolan realized that Vickram was already married and had children in that marriage. When Phoolan got angry with Vickram for keeping that from her, when she asked how many girls he had kidnapped and then married, he and his friends and relatives made Phoolan believe that it was a normal practice.
Chapter 22
Phoolan Devi speaks as a mallah woman. When she went to take revenge on Mayadin, Vickram told her that she couldn’t do that to someone from her own community. They could loot a thakur but not a mallah. About these rules that were essentially made by men, she says,
‘It was to these rules, the unwritten code, that I owed my life. But I still couldn’t accept it, I couldn’t abide by it, because I was a woman. I had no place in this hierarchy of caste. I was lower than all of them, and the demons I had to slay were more devious. Whatever caste they belonged to, they were all men.’
And in Chapter 23, the following portion further explains what she thought about it
‘I watched a little bird with blue wings flutter away from the shore. He didn’t have to thank anybody except God for the insects he ate; he could sing and fly higher than the tallest trees, up towards the light; he could fly into houses and peck at grain in the stores, and drink water from the stream if he was thirsty. He didn’t have to obey the rules of men. But I still did. Compared to the bird, I was powerless.’
After she killed Mansukh, because Mayadin had escaped, the police put a reward on her head. About it, she says,
‘But what they called a crime, I called justice.’
And then, when she was really going to kill Mayadin, when she got a chance to, she was not let to do that by the males in her gang. Her father said the same thing. Chapter 23
‘ . . . Madhav woudn’t give me back my rifle, and the jackal Mayadin was trying to pay me his respects.’
When Mayadin offered Phoolan money and begged for her forgiveness, she rejected it this way:
‘Get out of here with your filthy rupees!’ I said. ‘I’ll give you your miserable life for nothing, because that’s all it’s worth, nothing!’
But Vickram accepted the money.
‘Vickram pocketed the fifty thousand rupees Mayadin had brought.’
Phoolan felt that she should not have listened to her father and that she shouldn’t have spared Mayadin. She felt that ‘There was no justice’ for her after all.
Chapter 25,
‘It was an advantage being eighteen years old but looking only fifteen. In a petticoat and lunghi I resembled any other village girl on her way to wash. They didn’t give me a second glance. Phoolan Devi had a reputation as a dangerous dacoit. Just like the villager in the fields, the police too imagined her to be twice as tall as me, armed to the teeth and galloping across the fields on a white horse.’
Chapter 26
‘. . . I only knew how to read faces and how to understand what people said. I could tell the difference between an honest face and an untrustworthy one, between a promise that would be kept and one that would be broken, but that wasn’t enough.’
This is important because in many narratives about Phoolan Devi, one finds a narrative of Phoolan as a naïve woman, who did not know how to make decisions for herself. The truth is that she knew all it took to command people, wage wars and execute ambushes.
Later, in Chapter 35, while she was having talks with politicians about surrendering, she lays emphasis on this fact again.
‘It all seemed to be easy enough for them to understand, it was all just politics, but I had only my instincts to rely on for the truth. My struggle for survival had taught me to be wary. I didn’t know anything about politics, governments or states. All I knew was what I felt in my bones.’
And what a woman feels in her bones is important no matter how irrelevant patriarchy tells her it is. This could be the reason why, during her surrender, the man on the microphone was very nervous and worded it thus, as seen in Chapter 36
‘Phoolan Devi will now lay down her arms.,’ a man announced in the microphone. ‘The government has taken into account her decision to surrender of her own free will. We have accepted her conditions, er . . . No. She has accepted our conditions.
It was the same man who had made the mistake earlier. I couldn’t help myself. I smiled.’
She continues, about the plight of women,
‘. . . A woman couldn’t live alone in the city. She would be easy prey. Without a husband, she would be singled out, and without a family she would be considered a prostitute. With no one to defend her, any man could take her.’
After murdering Vickram, Shri Ram took Phoolan captive and raped her. He then made everyone in the village rape her. In the following portions you can clearly see how rape is a power crime and what goes on in the mind of the abuser.
‘I heard Shri Ram encouraging them, telling them to use me, to take advantage of me while they had me tied up like that.’
In Chapter 29 we see how Phoolan evolved with her experiences. She learned gender politics while she was in Vickram’s gang and you can see it in the decisions she took while she formed her own gang in order to take revenge.
‘. . . Balwan had about a dozen men. He offered to let me join him, saying we could run the gang together, but I didn’t want to get into a situation like that again. I didn’t need anyone’s protection this time and I wasn’t going to take orders from anybody. I was going to be the leader, I was the one who was going to be obeyed from now on.’
. . .
‘Since I didn’t want to join him, Balwan proposed to lend me money for arms and supplies. But I didn’t want to owe anything to anyone either. I knew that to be able to assert your will, independence was essential.’
I thought of many women who had said the same. M.D Radhika, feminist and ex-professor, Inji Pennu, blogger, Kani Kusruti, actor. I believe in this. Phoolan did too, and because people who asked for independence were not considered ‘womanly’ she put it this way.
‘. . . It’s simple, Balwan,’ I explained. ‘I don’t consider myself a woman any longer. I don’t want anybody’s protection, nor their help. I want to control everything myself. If I take a gun from you, I’ll pay you for it.’
Truly, this is the only way women can function in this society, in every sphere and profession even now.
There is also a portion that reminded me of the violence people do online to women. A very common phenomenon is that of addressing women ‘chechi’ [a term used to address one’s elder sister but becomes sexually coloured and sexist while in a debate. A sexually coloured form of ‘dear’ ‘darling’ ‘sweety’ used to put women down in online and offline discussions. So it brought a smile to my face when I read this incident where Phoolan was robbing a rich landowner who was robbing peasants.
‘No, no Bahanji, I haven’t done any harm. I haven’t hurt anyone. It’s my right!’
‘Don’t call me your sister! Where is the loot?’
Later in Chapter 32, she talks of how she gave the loot money to women. Another reason why representation is important.
‘Most of all, I liked to be able to give money to women. I very rarely gave it to men. They could work in the fields, go from village to village, find money somehow, but not the women. Nobody helped the women, not even their husbands. They didn’t give the women a rupee. Without money, women were forced to suffer hunger and humiliation, and even sell their bodies like sacks of flour, while the men spent their money drinking and gambling.’
Phoolan Devi also speaks about the fame and importance she received because she was a bandit. The Chief Minister of the state had to resign because of her. She was a living legend. And listen to what she had to say about it. In Chapter 33, she says,
‘. . .The radio and newspapers wouldn’t stop talking about me.
If only they had talked about me before, I thought, when I was being mistreated and I was the one crying out for justice. But the bad things done by the poor were all anyone ever talked about, not the bad things done to them.’
I thought of the six women who had gone to meet Hadiya. When they were released on bail, social media was busy calling them attention seekers. When will the world realize that people don’t enjoy it and the fame they are talking about is a result of their silence, the added collective silence of the society.
In Chapter 35, we can see how oppressed people look for similar people all around them. Phoolan wanted to meet Indira Gandhi, who was the Prime Minister then. She had a reason.
‘I had heard of her and I had admired Mrs. Gandhi. She was a woman, like me, after all, in a world of men. I knew nothing about her life but I knew she must have had to overcome many enemies, like me. . .’
She also fought for the women in jail when she was there. In Chapter 38, she says,
‘For a time, there was a prison director at Gwalior who was as corrupt and heartless as them. He let the madwomen mix with the common prisoners and die like dogs, their skinny bodies eaten by rats. I couldn’t rest after seeing their half-eaten corpses. All the time I was there I continued to rebel and fight. I protested every day against the filth, the laziness and the corruption. I went on hunger strike twice, trying to obtain some decency for us, and I nearly died the second time but nobody cared.’
Phoolan Devi had to spend more time in jail than what was agreed upon during the time of her surrender. Dacoits who had surrendered before her were all let off before her. ‘Even in jail, a woman had to wait in silence.’ She said about it. It was after eleven years that she was finally out of jail.
Caste
Caste is the context in which Phoolan’s story has been told. Her uncle Bihari was from the mallah caste and according to Phoolan http://kunjilacinema.blogspot.in/2018...
September 25, 2023
I have always known that I was an angry woman, but I have never quite measured that anger. Somehow, reading the horrendous tale of Phoolan Devi (1963 - 2001) reminded me of the layers of anger daubed within me, which I have carefully placed under the blanket of my personality. The autobiography of Phoolan Devi, India's Bandit Queen, has usurped me to confront that anger, but then, confrontation does not mean that I have accepted or come to terms with it.
Because, after all, why do we need to accept injustices imposed on us, denying that to be our destiny? Weren't social classes and social constructs created with the aim to divide us all ? The more I think about it, the angrier I get; but then, truth is, we are not meant to accept any unfairness weighed down on us. I suppose that this is where the police force and legal framework play their role, right ?
But, what if, the whole framework is corrupted by the rich and powerful ? What do we do ? How do we survive ? How are we meant to claim our rights, and carry on ?
This has been exactly the dilemma of Phoolan Devi, who was born in a poor lower caste family and came from a small village called Ghura Ka Purwa in Uttar Pradesh, India. Her struggle has been endless, yet she was relentless. Being beaten as a child, married at the age of eleven, raped by her husband, then several gang rapes and abuses, following which she was kidnapped by dacoits - that turned out to be her blessing in violent disguise - because that was what fuelled her transformation into India's Bandit Queen.
But no. I refuse to accept that this could be anyone's destiny. Everyone is a product of the society in which he / she is brought up from, and Phoolan Devi was no different. However, her venture for revenge to claim her rights made her different from the other women who quietly accepted those harsh realities as their fates. She was a national treasure for India in the form of a female icon, and I find extremely sad that she has not been eulogised enough for her courage and bravery.
Phoolan Devi was the first one to raise her voice against the casteist system in her state. She has defied all the social beliefs that she was meant to endure the harsh treatments, and humiliations due to her 'low-caste' background. Even if she is no longer alive, Phoolan Devi remains an admirable force, and deserves all her celebration as the manifestation of the Goddess Durga for her unabated endeavours to claim justice.
This autobiography is a poignant one, and extremely important to be spread, because only after reading her true tale you would be able to understand the series of events that lit her inner fire exploding into raids and killings. Not that killing is justified (or maybe it is, depending on morality - that's another debate), but it is extremely important that as a society, we become more aware of the implications of our actions and wrongdoings.
Unfortunately I feel that movies, thus media in general, do tend to 'bollywoodize' and censor the harsh realities, depriving us from the truth; and this is why I would urge anyone to read the book instead. I, Phoolan Devi is the first autobiography to have left its scar onto me. I know that, henceforth, I will walk by life with the constant reminder to live by my values, rights and to put my foot down whenever I need to; and I believe that everyone else should as well.
Because, after all, why do we need to accept injustices imposed on us, denying that to be our destiny? Weren't social classes and social constructs created with the aim to divide us all ? The more I think about it, the angrier I get; but then, truth is, we are not meant to accept any unfairness weighed down on us. I suppose that this is where the police force and legal framework play their role, right ?
But, what if, the whole framework is corrupted by the rich and powerful ? What do we do ? How do we survive ? How are we meant to claim our rights, and carry on ?
This has been exactly the dilemma of Phoolan Devi, who was born in a poor lower caste family and came from a small village called Ghura Ka Purwa in Uttar Pradesh, India. Her struggle has been endless, yet she was relentless. Being beaten as a child, married at the age of eleven, raped by her husband, then several gang rapes and abuses, following which she was kidnapped by dacoits - that turned out to be her blessing in violent disguise - because that was what fuelled her transformation into India's Bandit Queen.
But no. I refuse to accept that this could be anyone's destiny. Everyone is a product of the society in which he / she is brought up from, and Phoolan Devi was no different. However, her venture for revenge to claim her rights made her different from the other women who quietly accepted those harsh realities as their fates. She was a national treasure for India in the form of a female icon, and I find extremely sad that she has not been eulogised enough for her courage and bravery.
Phoolan Devi was the first one to raise her voice against the casteist system in her state. She has defied all the social beliefs that she was meant to endure the harsh treatments, and humiliations due to her 'low-caste' background. Even if she is no longer alive, Phoolan Devi remains an admirable force, and deserves all her celebration as the manifestation of the Goddess Durga for her unabated endeavours to claim justice.
This autobiography is a poignant one, and extremely important to be spread, because only after reading her true tale you would be able to understand the series of events that lit her inner fire exploding into raids and killings. Not that killing is justified (or maybe it is, depending on morality - that's another debate), but it is extremely important that as a society, we become more aware of the implications of our actions and wrongdoings.
Unfortunately I feel that movies, thus media in general, do tend to 'bollywoodize' and censor the harsh realities, depriving us from the truth; and this is why I would urge anyone to read the book instead. I, Phoolan Devi is the first autobiography to have left its scar onto me. I know that, henceforth, I will walk by life with the constant reminder to live by my values, rights and to put my foot down whenever I need to; and I believe that everyone else should as well.
January 16, 2019
I, Phoolan Devi is a true story that will continue to shock you again and again. It seems that the book takes place long ago, yet Phoolan's wild story actually spans from 1972-1995. The depth of the tragedies in Phoolan's life becomes immediately apparent, with the book detailing sexual abuse she faced at age 10 from her 35-year-old husband. At first, I was unsure if I could continue reading the memoir, as it often put me in a mad-at-the-world mood, but I told myself that it is important to understand a story that is unfortunately common place for many young girls.
The tale then continues to depict how Phoolan, an illiterate and oppressed girl, grows into a strong and ruthless woman who defies society in every aspect. Although her actions may seem morally wrong to anyone who reads them today, they resemble a sort of sweet revenge that feels entirely justified for all of the Mallah women in India. First recorded audibly from Phoolan's own voice, it is incredible how this novel is written to so clearly tell the story of Phoolan with no unnecessary embellishments.
Anyone who tasks themselves with reading this novel must understand that its content can be very hard to swallow at times, but I believe that "I, Phoolan Devi" is a constantly astonishing tale and an important read of one extraordinary woman.
The tale then continues to depict how Phoolan, an illiterate and oppressed girl, grows into a strong and ruthless woman who defies society in every aspect. Although her actions may seem morally wrong to anyone who reads them today, they resemble a sort of sweet revenge that feels entirely justified for all of the Mallah women in India. First recorded audibly from Phoolan's own voice, it is incredible how this novel is written to so clearly tell the story of Phoolan with no unnecessary embellishments.
Anyone who tasks themselves with reading this novel must understand that its content can be very hard to swallow at times, but I believe that "I, Phoolan Devi" is a constantly astonishing tale and an important read of one extraordinary woman.
July 23, 2020
Una historia desgarradora. A través de las palabras de Phoolam Devi se es capaz de vivir su vida y de entender sus decisiones. Un libro doloroso y necesario.
October 2, 2007
This was a random selection in my biographies of women A-Z reading quest. It was worth reading if only to better understand the lives of the low castes in India. I was aware of how little the average family possesses in India but was not aware of the social, economic, physical, psychological and sexual abuse that accompany low status. If even half of what Devi dictated is true, it is appalling. Devi is a larger-than-life figure and some of her story seems over-embellished. She glosses over the infamous Behmai massacre incident that allegedly led to her murder in 2001 at the hands of a Behmai victim's family member.
August 22, 2017
Kuinka julmaa ja epäreilua voi olla elämä? Tässä kirjassa todella näkyy kastijärjestelmän mahdollistama julmuus pahimmillaan... Phoolan Deviä lait eivät suojaa, joten mahdollisuuden saadessa hän ryhtyy oikeaksi lainsuojattomaksi. Väkivaltahan ei ole hyväksyttävää, mutta tässä kontekstissa hänen jatkuvaa taisteluaan oikeudesta elämään on ihailtava; hänen vaihtoehtonsa olivat joko kuolla ennemmin kuin myöhemmin raa'alla tavalla, tehdä itsemurha tai ryhtyä tappajaksi.
Kaikesta turhauttavasta epäoikeudenmukaisuudesta huolimatta loppu on rauhallisempi ja hitusen toiveikkaammalla puolella. Tämä kirja jäi kummittelemaan mieleen pitkäksi aikaa.
Kaikesta turhauttavasta epäoikeudenmukaisuudesta huolimatta loppu on rauhallisempi ja hitusen toiveikkaammalla puolella. Tämä kirja jäi kummittelemaan mieleen pitkäksi aikaa.
October 4, 2007
If you like "The Bandit Queen," you'll like this book. Warning: it is not an easy read due to the graphic nature of the contents. It's raw, gripping and heartfelt and takes the reader into a world hopefully they will never know: caste wars, extreme violence against women, and disregard for basic human rights. Yet the heroine (if you view her as such) nevertheless triumphs. I saw Phoolan Devi days before she was murdered and it etched a certain consciousness on me. Whether she's a hero, villain or bandit in your eyes, she was a most intriguing character.
March 30, 2021
Publicada en 1996, narra la durísima biografía de Phoolan Devi, una india perteneciente a la casta más inferior, mujer y pobre, mala combinación.
No entra a detallar demasiado las vivencias más crudas, pero no es necesario para sufrir junto a ella. Impotencia es la palabra que define la mayoría de mis sensaciones mientras leía.
Muy recomendable si eres de las personas que disfrutan con las biografías o conociendo la realidad de otros países.
No entra a detallar demasiado las vivencias más crudas, pero no es necesario para sufrir junto a ella. Impotencia es la palabra que define la mayoría de mis sensaciones mientras leía.
Muy recomendable si eres de las personas que disfrutan con las biografías o conociendo la realidad de otros países.
Read
February 23, 2023No Rating because I don't rate biographies.
This was heartbreaking and heart-wrenching and soul-hurting.
The fact that stories like hers are still happening is upsetting.
She was a strong resilient and inspiring woman.
I have no words.
This was heartbreaking and heart-wrenching and soul-hurting.
The fact that stories like hers are still happening is upsetting.
She was a strong resilient and inspiring woman.
I have no words.
April 2, 2023
I am a product of my many experiences, some lived, some imagined, some read and heard. With all this, I probably will never even come close to comprehending the pain and suffering that befell Phoolan Devi's life, but I would carry her spirit and her memory in my conscience.
May 13, 2018
This book was so captivating. What a life Phoolan Devi led! So far beyond my comprehension. She has such a strong spirit to have endeavoured all that she did. Highly recommend!
June 2, 2019
Read this book.
Take care of yourself while you do - no woman should every have to endure what Phoolan Devi endured. Many do, and most never get to tell their story.
Read her story.
Take care of yourself while you do - no woman should every have to endure what Phoolan Devi endured. Many do, and most never get to tell their story.
Read her story.
January 25, 2019
The story of Phoolan Devi is both harrowing and gut wrenching, while also being captivating and inspiring. She is beyond an inspiration and a true example of resilience and power. Her story and the awful things that happened to her are hard to read, but I'm so glad I read this book. It's one of those stories that will stick with me for a long time.
April 23, 2024
Wow
Esta mujer vivió una vida que merece ser leída. Me corrijo: esta mujer sufrió una vida, que por la tenacidad con la se sobrevivió, merece ser leída.
Esta mujer vivió una vida que merece ser leída. Me corrijo: esta mujer sufrió una vida, que por la tenacidad con la se sobrevivió, merece ser leída.
December 21, 2022
മനുഷ്യത്വം തൊട്ട് തീണ്ടാത്ത മനുഷ്യർക്കിടയിൽ ജീവിച്ച്, അവർണ്ണ ജാതിയിൽ പിറന്നതുമൂലം ഒരുപാട് ദുരിതങ്ങൾ സഹിച്ച മരിച്ചുജീവിക്കേണ്ടിവന്ന ഫൂലൻ ദേവി എന്ന പെൺകുട്ടിയുടെ കഥ. അവർ കടന്നുപോയ വഴികൾ നമ്മൾക്ക് ആലോചിക്കാൻ കൂടെ പ്രയാസമാണ്. നിരക്ഷരയായ ഒരു പെൺ പുലിയുടെ സാ���സികമായ ഒരു ജീവിത കഥ.
August 19, 2020
Je l'ai lu un peu par hasard, par curiosité.
Phoolan Devi vient d'une très basse caste indienne. Elle a grandi dans un village très pauvre de l'Uttar Pradesh avec ses parents, ses sœurs et son petit frère, et pas loin de ses connards d'oncle et de cousin. Parce qu'elle était pauvre, et parce qu'elle était une femme qui ne se vivait - à juste titre - pas comme inférieure, on lui a fait vivre pire que l'enfer.
Cette autobiographie retrace son enfance et la période de sa vie pendant laquelle elle s'est fait connaître comme la "reine des bandits", jusqu'à l'âge de 25 ans environ, si je ne me trompe pas. Elle ne couvre pas la suite de sa vie, après ses années de prison, où il me semble qu'elle est devenue parlementaire de son état, avant d'être assassinée.
Elle ne savait ni lire, ni écrire, et a dicté ce livre. Il est pourtant diablement bien mené.
Je n'en reviens pas que le nom de cette femme extraordinaire ne soit pas connu de tous. Elle mériterait qu'on la vénère comme une déesse pour racheter les souffrances indicibles qui lui ont été infligées au cours de sa vie ; et encore, ça ne suffirait pas. Quel courage, quelle résilience. Je n'oublierai jamais son histoire.
Phoolan Devi vient d'une très basse caste indienne. Elle a grandi dans un village très pauvre de l'Uttar Pradesh avec ses parents, ses sœurs et son petit frère, et pas loin de ses connards d'oncle et de cousin. Parce qu'elle était pauvre, et parce qu'elle était une femme qui ne se vivait - à juste titre - pas comme inférieure, on lui a fait vivre pire que l'enfer.
Cette autobiographie retrace son enfance et la période de sa vie pendant laquelle elle s'est fait connaître comme la "reine des bandits", jusqu'à l'âge de 25 ans environ, si je ne me trompe pas. Elle ne couvre pas la suite de sa vie, après ses années de prison, où il me semble qu'elle est devenue parlementaire de son état, avant d'être assassinée.
Elle ne savait ni lire, ni écrire, et a dicté ce livre. Il est pourtant diablement bien mené.
Je n'en reviens pas que le nom de cette femme extraordinaire ne soit pas connu de tous. Elle mériterait qu'on la vénère comme une déesse pour racheter les souffrances indicibles qui lui ont été infligées au cours de sa vie ; et encore, ça ne suffirait pas. Quel courage, quelle résilience. Je n'oublierai jamais son histoire.
April 4, 2020
This autobiography is gripping, intensely feminist and blunt in its descriptions of the gender-based violence and rigid caste system prejudices endured by the protagonist.
It charts the life of the "dacoit" or bandit queen Phoolan Devi. In Phoolan's own words, her story is told from her perspective, from her birth in poverty to her release from a jail in Delhi after 11 years of confinement without trial. She explains where her rage comes from, and how her turn to armed banditry was a means of rebellion against the patriarchal violence that was all she had ever known.
While reading this, I was devastated and incensed by all that Phoolan had experienced, and fiercely admirable of her strength of spirit. Reading this and understanding where Phoolan comes from, you can't help but empathize with her life's journey and why she made the choices she did. Given half the courage, I would have done the same.
This is not a book written by a man or someone outside of India about Phoolan Devi, as many other stories have been. This autobiography is Phoolan's words, recited verbally, edited, and then approved by her before publishing, given that she remained illiterate at the time of her release from prison. So, if you are looking to learn more about the life of this remarkable woman from her own perspective, the caste system, poverty or gender relations in India, I would highly recommend this book.
It charts the life of the "dacoit" or bandit queen Phoolan Devi. In Phoolan's own words, her story is told from her perspective, from her birth in poverty to her release from a jail in Delhi after 11 years of confinement without trial. She explains where her rage comes from, and how her turn to armed banditry was a means of rebellion against the patriarchal violence that was all she had ever known.
While reading this, I was devastated and incensed by all that Phoolan had experienced, and fiercely admirable of her strength of spirit. Reading this and understanding where Phoolan comes from, you can't help but empathize with her life's journey and why she made the choices she did. Given half the courage, I would have done the same.
This is not a book written by a man or someone outside of India about Phoolan Devi, as many other stories have been. This autobiography is Phoolan's words, recited verbally, edited, and then approved by her before publishing, given that she remained illiterate at the time of her release from prison. So, if you are looking to learn more about the life of this remarkable woman from her own perspective, the caste system, poverty or gender relations in India, I would highly recommend this book.
September 13, 2020
Este libro se nota que está hecho en declaraciones de la misma Phoolan Devi. En cuanto inicias, descubres la vida de una niña, inocente e ignorante del mundo, en una aldea de la India. De los maltratos y la negligencia de sus padres, pero siempre desde un punto de vista inocente... Su propia visión de las cosas, de la moral y la religión me hacen plantearme de forma adecuada. No es un libro complicado de entender, las castas son explicadas entre la narración; incluso si te pierdes, hay una aclaratoria de esto al final del libro.
Es la vida de una mujer excepcional que no estaba dispuesta a vivir bajo los cánones de la sociedad, que no se doblegaría ante la voluntad del hombre, que no nació para estar callada y sumisa, en un país que ha tenido un cambio muy lento en sus costumbres nocivas para los seres humanos. Donde los pobres no tienen derechos y son tratados como escoria.
Vale la pena leerlo. Nunca hay que olvidar de lo que son capaces los seres humanos... de lo que podríamos considerar "normal". Esto solo es una pequeña cucharadita de las atrocidades de la historia del mundo, en un pequeño trozo de tierra hace unas décadas...
Es la vida de una mujer excepcional que no estaba dispuesta a vivir bajo los cánones de la sociedad, que no se doblegaría ante la voluntad del hombre, que no nació para estar callada y sumisa, en un país que ha tenido un cambio muy lento en sus costumbres nocivas para los seres humanos. Donde los pobres no tienen derechos y son tratados como escoria.
Vale la pena leerlo. Nunca hay que olvidar de lo que son capaces los seres humanos... de lo que podríamos considerar "normal". Esto solo es una pequeña cucharadita de las atrocidades de la historia del mundo, en un pequeño trozo de tierra hace unas décadas...
April 18, 2018
This book is a horrific read. It is the dictated(I guess) autobiography of the Indian low caste woman Phoolan Devi, who was born into hardship filled poverty and ended up being a dacoit, a bandit queen.
It seems that her anger kept her alive through hunger, humiliation, injustice, tens of rapes and beatings. Ii#t is a good reminder of how the cast system went wrong in India, and that there still should (she was finally shot 2001, after she had been the member of parliament after her release) be measures taken to guarantee the human rights to all, especially to the poor women. The book is not in itself a literary masterpiece, but one marvels the courage and honor of Phoolan Devi of being the female Robin Hood and makes one ponder about conflict resolution, and how quick a change in habits is possible or is it and how to introduce it.
It seems that her anger kept her alive through hunger, humiliation, injustice, tens of rapes and beatings. Ii#t is a good reminder of how the cast system went wrong in India, and that there still should (she was finally shot 2001, after she had been the member of parliament after her release) be measures taken to guarantee the human rights to all, especially to the poor women. The book is not in itself a literary masterpiece, but one marvels the courage and honor of Phoolan Devi of being the female Robin Hood and makes one ponder about conflict resolution, and how quick a change in habits is possible or is it and how to introduce it.
February 22, 2022
I read this book more than 20 years ago. I took it from my cousin who had just read the book. She told me about it and sure enough I got hooked when i started reading it. I then told my mum's cousin who then asked for the book, took it and never gave it back to me, this was before I finished the book. 10 years later I bought the book online and finally read the book to its end.
A thrilling yet fascinating read on the life of Phoolan Devi. The difficulties, tortures, humiliating experiences she went through and the the power.
I also watched its movie but like many movies based on books, it wasn't as exciting as reading the book.
A thrilling yet fascinating read on the life of Phoolan Devi. The difficulties, tortures, humiliating experiences she went through and the the power.
I also watched its movie but like many movies based on books, it wasn't as exciting as reading the book.
May 19, 2023
"In my village, there were only those who lay around all day wielding sticks and eating the bounty of their lands and those who cowered from the sticks and worked the lands, eating what they could." (37)
"We drove at high speed towards the jail now. I thought of nothing else but prison. The trees by the roadside seemed to be receding from me, like the jungle, and my liberty." (475)
"I was a stone in the jungle, a stone without feeling or regrets. I was no longer a woman. A stone couldn't marry a man when it was a man who had made the stone." (487)
Edition Read - Sphere, An imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, 2014.
"We drove at high speed towards the jail now. I thought of nothing else but prison. The trees by the roadside seemed to be receding from me, like the jungle, and my liberty." (475)
"I was a stone in the jungle, a stone without feeling or regrets. I was no longer a woman. A stone couldn't marry a man when it was a man who had made the stone." (487)
Edition Read - Sphere, An imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, London, 2014.
August 16, 2008
Born of a low caste, her story opens up life in the land so enveloped in the caste ideology and mentality plus the very corrupted authority. She survived because she was defiant and grew up to become the person that she was due to the denigration she received as a woman. Salvation came in the form of membership in a gang of Mallah and living like an Asian Robin Hood somewhat.
Though she did spend some time in jail, she later mounted a political career only to be assassinated later.
Though she did spend some time in jail, she later mounted a political career only to be assassinated later.
July 1, 2022
An amazing story I read once a year or so. The tale of Phoolan, who gets her revenge, and seeks justice for every woman in India is an inspiring one that I can not forget.
Phoolan survives by being just as cruel as her violators, and gained my respect and admiration ever since I first read her story, when I was 11.
Horrible, fascinating, inspiring.
I advise this book to everyone.
Phoolan survives by being just as cruel as her violators, and gained my respect and admiration ever since I first read her story, when I was 11.
Horrible, fascinating, inspiring.
I advise this book to everyone.
October 21, 2018
The cover says," no reader can fail to be on her side". This is in fact true. Before coming across this legendary piece of work done by the author , i just knew that there was this dacoit named Phoolan Devi famously known as "the Bandit Queen". Never have i thought what led her to become a dacoit, no one chooses this as their ambition. Its a must read book.
August 22, 2023
Wow! What an amazing life! What an amazing woman who has had to overcome adversity time and time again. If you already hate men, this will make you hate men even more. Some of the men described in this book, in her life, are so nasty and mean! She has so much willpower and strength! Great read! Would recommend
December 13, 2023
But What They Called A Crime, I Called Justice.
- I, Phoolan Devi : The Autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen by Phoolan Devi, Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali
.
.
I was not ready at all when i decided to read this book. The r*pe weaponisation upon lower caste women were being demonstrated over and over again in the story except this one is based on the experience of the victim herself. She was r*ped when she’s became a bride to a man 3 times her age. The man promised her family that he will wait until she reached age of puberty only to break it once the wedding ceremony is over. Then she was rap*d infront of her parents for crossing a line and threatened some men from an upper caste. She decided to run away after the incident only to be caught after her rich cousins lodged a police report and accused her of being a dacoit. She was detained and were repeatedly assaulted physically and s*xually by the police officers. After she was being released, she got kidnapped due to her reputation of being a female dacoit eventhough it was a false allegation. She was rescued by her husband at that time simply because her mother pledge to him that they were of the same caste , so he shouldnt hurt her like other men did. Following her husband footsteps, she became one of his bandits. She was fiercely loyal to him. Together, they emulated what ‘Robbin Hood’ had done to help the poor community - only Phoolan take more steps to it adding vangeance towards her r*pists and also punishing those who have wronged women simply because they are coming from lower caste. This book was tough and hold not punches. It was graphically horrifying but that is the reality at that time for many lower caste indian women that lived in rural area. Her parents viewed her as a burden and when she misbehaved, she got beaten. Her entire livelihood was rough, surrounded by poverty - she saw how her parents toiled to feed them but it was never enough. Her family hardship was being burdened by her father’s relatives betrayal causing them to be in debt and often penniless. So when she decided to unfurl her rage and refused to forgive the betrayal that she has faced by killing many Thakurs so that she can tavenge her humiliation being gang-r*ped and paraded naked throughout village by his husband’s trusted ally - my respond was simply be it is justifiable. In fact, killing was so disproportionate to what she has been through. She becomes a bitter woman and righfully so, she never trusted any man after that. When she reformed her group back, she always tiptoeing among her followers and did not fully rely on them. Of course, when upper caste men were being massacred and attacked, only then the government sprung into an action - hunting Phoolan Devi and all of her followers, negotiating and forcing her to surrender. Tired of running, she decided to give herself in but she set certain conditions which eventually agreed by the government. The charges against her were dropped and she was released few months after that. She went on to become a well respected member of parliament. She was assassinated in 2001 leaving behind a legacy of a lower caste women that managed to turn her destiny from being a dacoit to a politician.
- I, Phoolan Devi : The Autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen by Phoolan Devi, Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali
.
.
I was not ready at all when i decided to read this book. The r*pe weaponisation upon lower caste women were being demonstrated over and over again in the story except this one is based on the experience of the victim herself. She was r*ped when she’s became a bride to a man 3 times her age. The man promised her family that he will wait until she reached age of puberty only to break it once the wedding ceremony is over. Then she was rap*d infront of her parents for crossing a line and threatened some men from an upper caste. She decided to run away after the incident only to be caught after her rich cousins lodged a police report and accused her of being a dacoit. She was detained and were repeatedly assaulted physically and s*xually by the police officers. After she was being released, she got kidnapped due to her reputation of being a female dacoit eventhough it was a false allegation. She was rescued by her husband at that time simply because her mother pledge to him that they were of the same caste , so he shouldnt hurt her like other men did. Following her husband footsteps, she became one of his bandits. She was fiercely loyal to him. Together, they emulated what ‘Robbin Hood’ had done to help the poor community - only Phoolan take more steps to it adding vangeance towards her r*pists and also punishing those who have wronged women simply because they are coming from lower caste. This book was tough and hold not punches. It was graphically horrifying but that is the reality at that time for many lower caste indian women that lived in rural area. Her parents viewed her as a burden and when she misbehaved, she got beaten. Her entire livelihood was rough, surrounded by poverty - she saw how her parents toiled to feed them but it was never enough. Her family hardship was being burdened by her father’s relatives betrayal causing them to be in debt and often penniless. So when she decided to unfurl her rage and refused to forgive the betrayal that she has faced by killing many Thakurs so that she can tavenge her humiliation being gang-r*ped and paraded naked throughout village by his husband’s trusted ally - my respond was simply be it is justifiable. In fact, killing was so disproportionate to what she has been through. She becomes a bitter woman and righfully so, she never trusted any man after that. When she reformed her group back, she always tiptoeing among her followers and did not fully rely on them. Of course, when upper caste men were being massacred and attacked, only then the government sprung into an action - hunting Phoolan Devi and all of her followers, negotiating and forcing her to surrender. Tired of running, she decided to give herself in but she set certain conditions which eventually agreed by the government. The charges against her were dropped and she was released few months after that. She went on to become a well respected member of parliament. She was assassinated in 2001 leaving behind a legacy of a lower caste women that managed to turn her destiny from being a dacoit to a politician.
April 13, 2023
Phoolan Devi, jeune Indienne pauvre nous raconte comment elle est devenue, malgré elle, l’un des bandits les plus recherchés et craints de l’Inde.
C’est une histoire qu’il me tardait de découvrir. Phoolan Devi est une Indienne issue d’une des castes les plus pauvres. Sa famille vit de la culture des champs et a du mal à nourrir leurs nombreux enfants. Phoolan est jeune et vive, travailleuse mais aussi espiègle, dotée d’un caractère trempé et d’une capacité de déduction rare. C’est une enfant très intelligente, mais ça elle ne le sait pas.
Son témoignage se découpe en deux parties bien distinctes ; la première étant la destruction. La jeune indienne sera mariée avant de « devenir femme » comme ils disent, c’est là que sa descente aux enfers commence avec toutes sortes de violences, s’en suit évidemment le déshonneur et le rejet. La deuxième partie, j’ai un peu plus de mal à la définir, je dirais qu’elle représente la revanche. Phoolan, telle le phoenix, renaît de ses cendres. Malgré la haine qui bout en elle, elle restera juste et honorable envers ses persécuteurs. Ce qui lui vaudra la légende de la Reine des bandits.
Son récit est édifiant. J’ai vécu son histoire avec elle à travers toute l’Inde. Phoolan Devi est une héroïne, elle a fait preuve de plus de force et de courage que bien du monde, tout en restant humble et n’oubliant jamais sa caste. En voilà une femme inspirante et admirable, avec une histoire qu’il est impossible à oublier par sa brutalité mais aussi par sa revanche sur la vie.
Ce que je trouve juste dommage, c’est qu’il manque tout ce qu’elle a fait après ce livre. Qui est tout aussi important et respectable.
C’est une histoire qu’il me tardait de découvrir. Phoolan Devi est une Indienne issue d’une des castes les plus pauvres. Sa famille vit de la culture des champs et a du mal à nourrir leurs nombreux enfants. Phoolan est jeune et vive, travailleuse mais aussi espiègle, dotée d’un caractère trempé et d’une capacité de déduction rare. C’est une enfant très intelligente, mais ça elle ne le sait pas.
Son témoignage se découpe en deux parties bien distinctes ; la première étant la destruction. La jeune indienne sera mariée avant de « devenir femme » comme ils disent, c’est là que sa descente aux enfers commence avec toutes sortes de violences, s’en suit évidemment le déshonneur et le rejet. La deuxième partie, j’ai un peu plus de mal à la définir, je dirais qu’elle représente la revanche. Phoolan, telle le phoenix, renaît de ses cendres. Malgré la haine qui bout en elle, elle restera juste et honorable envers ses persécuteurs. Ce qui lui vaudra la légende de la Reine des bandits.
Son récit est édifiant. J’ai vécu son histoire avec elle à travers toute l’Inde. Phoolan Devi est une héroïne, elle a fait preuve de plus de force et de courage que bien du monde, tout en restant humble et n’oubliant jamais sa caste. En voilà une femme inspirante et admirable, avec une histoire qu’il est impossible à oublier par sa brutalité mais aussi par sa revanche sur la vie.
Ce que je trouve juste dommage, c’est qu’il manque tout ce qu’elle a fait après ce livre. Qui est tout aussi important et respectable.
May 20, 2023
So I picked up this book because one of my favorite authors, Nnedi Okorafor, posted about how it is one of her favorite books and has inspired aspects of several of her characters. Great! Since I love Okorafor's books, but it is not fair for me to expect her to write them as fast as I can read them, picking up this book felt like a way to get some backstory, without having to wait for her next book....
Oof! I should have known what sort of book I was getting into, based on my description above (many of Okorafor's characters are terribly mistreated), but I feel like there was no amount of expectation that could braced me for the horrible abuse this poor girl survived. She grew up low caste in India where the higher castes did not feel the need to treat her as human, and female to a family that was too poor to be afford to pay a decent dowry to get her married to a decent man (which was her only traditional means to a relatively decent life of hard service and intermittent abuse). So Phoolan Devi, by some miracle, gets it in her head that the treatment she is receiving; all she has ever seen or known, is not fair and she refuses to accept it.
The amount of abuse and betrayal she endures as a result of her refusing to accept the injustices heaped upon her is truly staggering to even read about; I am in awe of her strength, and horrified at the conditions that necessitated it. She was a rule breaker, a tradition defier, and a bandit... but in a society that is fundamentally injust, to fight against it is to be a hero.
Oof! I should have known what sort of book I was getting into, based on my description above (many of Okorafor's characters are terribly mistreated), but I feel like there was no amount of expectation that could braced me for the horrible abuse this poor girl survived. She grew up low caste in India where the higher castes did not feel the need to treat her as human, and female to a family that was too poor to be afford to pay a decent dowry to get her married to a decent man (which was her only traditional means to a relatively decent life of hard service and intermittent abuse). So Phoolan Devi, by some miracle, gets it in her head that the treatment she is receiving; all she has ever seen or known, is not fair and she refuses to accept it.
The amount of abuse and betrayal she endures as a result of her refusing to accept the injustices heaped upon her is truly staggering to even read about; I am in awe of her strength, and horrified at the conditions that necessitated it. She was a rule breaker, a tradition defier, and a bandit... but in a society that is fundamentally injust, to fight against it is to be a hero.
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