Phoolan Devi- The Real Deal

Dear Readers,

This is an article that I wrote sometime in middleschool. All the information provided is accurate as of when I wrote the story. I found this again after believing I had lost in years ago. Her story still fascinates me to this day. 

Bandit Queen of India

By Nilesh Kamal Murali

The U.S. Embassy quieted to a respectful silence as the white-shrouded figure walked with a lumbering step towards the consulate desk. The posse of gun wielding bodyguards moved to box her in. She had an elaphantine grace about her and her eyes flashed with a quick smile. I was only seven and could not judge her exact height, only regarding her as a statuesque persona who stood at the end of my peripheral vision that day in 2000. The only other thing I remember from that day was the deference that permeated the air. I always wondered who she was. I found out five years later. Her name was Phoolan Devi, the most famous Indian decoit ever!

The decoits, a term that the British had twisted from its original form, Dakku (thief)*, had been over-lords of the Deccan Plain of India for more than a millenium. They were a descendant of an even more ancient group of plain-roaming bandits, the Thuggees, a group of bandits who worshipped the Goddess of Death, Kali. The decoits worshipped Durga, another form of Kali in Indian mythology. During the seventy or so invasions the motherland had suffered, the decoits managed to thrive. Their mode of killing was simple, strangling, and they usually preyed on single travellers. They were a very well organised and close fraternity, bigger than the Mafia in modern times and responsible for possibly millions of deaths. Even the might of the Mughal empire which ruled India from the 1300s to the 1700s could not squelch their trade. The decoits raided villages in a defiance of even the world's greatest empire, The British Raj. India's version of gangsters, these decoits, were real killers. Daku Behram, one of India's most famous decoits had killed at least 900 people (He killed 200 personally) in his violent career in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

But it did not seem to be Phoolan's lot to attain such a violent title. Indeed, Phoolan was born into a time of relative calm. The only real tremors of trouble that surrounded her birth in her village in August 10, 1963 were the tremblings that stemmed from the growing caste conflict. By this time, India was a free and relatively modern nation and most of India's Caste System, an infamous Hindu fuedalism system which divided people into different classes, had been eliminated in big cities.* However, an integral part in the Hindu culture, it survived unabated in the largely illiterate farming society of the rest of India. This caused much strife between lower castes and the plantation owning Thakurs, or high caste Indians. For, most lower caste members in the really remote villages lived in squalid conditions with not even properly thatched hovels. Of course, there was nothing new about this as it had been going on for three millenium in the old rutted land of Bharat (India). However, recently a number of failed reforms had prompted young militant lower caste men to rise up against the Thakurs and take "justice" into their own hands. Thakurs' houses were burned and in return Thakurs used corrupt government officials, rampant in India at the time to get back at the lower castes. However this was largely localised and there are only a few verifiable incidents that these took place.

Phoolan was born a mullah*, a lower fishing caste girl who brought her parents no joy in their tiny village. Her name meant "Flower Goddess". She seemed a charismatic child, an ordinary village girl. Early in her life she suffered from injustice. At twelve she was married to a man three times her age for a one cow dowry (this was illegal but there were no policemen to police the villages). She was repeatedly raped and abused. Two years later, at 14, dishonored and disgraced, she was sent back to her home village. In all probability, she had fought back and escaped, showing early on that she was a fighter, not willing to take things without striking back. Her father promptly disowned her. At this point, her tale was not so different as multitudes of village girls. For a time, she lived her life surviving on the edge of society. This was probably her most formative time apart from her time as a gangster. She was thoroughly indoctrinated by the injustices the poor women like she suffered daily. She would probably have ended her life there and then except that god seemed to intervene on her part. She was captured by a group of multi-caste bandits in 1978. This may not seem like a very good thing by any ones point of view but we would never have heard of Phoolan Devi otherwise. She had no way of knowing, but at some point in the future, she would be hailed as the greatest of the decoits, leader of the very bands that captured her as they raided the villages of India.

At first the decoits (the gangsters), threatened Phoolan Devi with rape. Baboo, their notorious leader, looked down on her as a lower caste and therefore unfit to live. However, Vikram Mallah, a young lower caste man, killed Baboo and saved Phoolan from a terrible fate. They eventually fell in love and would be known as Phoolan- Vikram as long as they were together. Phoolans lightining introduction into the gang and her subsequent leadership suggests that Phoolan was very adaptable and clever individual. She learned to ride a horse and shoot with along rifle extremely quickly, important skills for the gangster in making. Within the next few months, she was already participating in the gang activity that made her world famous. The gang would usually abduct sons of rich higher caste land owners and would demand ransom*. Thanks to Phoolan's experience and empathy, women and children were duly spared. In the late 1970s, the gang committed a variety of crimes that made the famous in India.

A famous story surrounding Phoolan Devi's constant fight against injustice is told here to demonstrate the complexity and the simplicity of this woman whose extremely short career resulted in fame. One day, with her boyfriend Vikram, she takes revenge on her old husband*. She goes to his house in her old village and stabs him in the leg and drags him in the main street for the villagers to see. She supposedly leaves a not which reads simply, "Lechery is a Sin". Though this message is probably a fabrication since she was illiterate the general idea is is given in all the stories about her.

During this period, Phoolan seemed to take a great interest in social issues, as ironic as it may seem. As she went with her gang from village to village, she would throw insults at higher caste members shile she looted their houses. She gave part of her loot to the poor lower-caste members of the communities she visited. This would give her steady if covert support in the villages. She was seen as a modern Robin Hood which she was. And always, she would go to thank her patron goddess Durga after a successful raid. However, her happy days, if not dangerous days, with Vikram were nearing an end.

A friend of Vikram's, Shri Ram, was released from jail and demanded leadership of the gang. He would make advances towards Phoolan and it took all Vikram's energy to protect her. He would also abuse and beat lower caste members of the villages they raided and would insult them. Many lower caste members of the gang left after seeing this partiality. One day, Vikram suggested that the gang be split in half. The higher caste members under Shri Ram could go their sepparate ways. This inflamed Shri Ram who lead an ambush and nearly captured Phoolan and Vikram. However Vikram died from wounds and Phoolan was quickly taken captive there after by Shri Ram. She was held in the village of Behmai and was raped by some of the higher caste men of the village. Finally after nearly a month of abuse, a lower caste man helped her escape the village.

In 1981, she quickly re-formed a gang made of lower caste members. She continued to loot higher caste villages and became famous in the Indian headlines-"Phoolan Devi hangaama Machaaya aathank Bathaya"* (Literally, Phoolan Devi spreads chaos and disruption). By this time, she was a phantom who haunted little children as they slept. She joined with Daku Man Singh, a bandit who will late become famous for committing 1112 felonies including 120 murders. She expected her gang members to call her Phool, the masculine version her name. She one day stumbled on the village of Behmai and realized that this was the place where her once captor resided. She supposedly ordered all higher caste men in the village, 22 in all, executed for her rape. She later denied this in her auto-biography. The police ordered an enormous man-hunt for her but could find no trace of her. She had slipped away into the gullies of the Chambal valley.

In February 1983, Prime Minister Indira Ghandi (herself, India's most infamous prime minister), herself offered Phoolan Devi a half pardon if she turned herself in. By this time Phoolan was very sick and she had Ovarian Cysts which required surgery. She was tired of living on the run but she remained shrewd in turning herself in. Phoolan engineered her surrender so that she cannot be hanged and her gang members will get less than a decade in prison time per person. She surrendered her guns to the Goddess Durga at a temple. At her arrest some thousands of villages went out to worship her as a Robin Hood. She was taken into official custody and for the next eleven years was imprisoned (at the time of her arrest, she was just shy of 20).

After an exhausting decade in prison in which her trial detailing 48 known crimes was delayed, she was released on bail by a lower caste politician who hoped to boost his own standing in local elctions. By this time, a movie titled Bandit Queen was already released which immortalized her. However she contested the movie because "it showed her as a victim which she was not". That year, with the help of two international authors, she drafter her own autobiography which became a hit. She married a Delhi business contractor within that year (the man must have had extraordinary tastes) and seemed to turn her life around. In 1996, she became a politician for the lower castes who widely supported her. This was significant in two ways, first it brought out her goal all along- fighting injustice- and it protected her from a possible upcoming court trial which she could sidestep by joining the Parliament of India. She did a relatively poor job and was rather corrupt. She would use state run equipment for her own use but her heart was always in the right place it seemed.

In 1999, she won again in parliament and did a much better job*. She championed newly enacted stronger child labor laws. She brought many reforms to the poor of India. However, she was visciously kept from doing more by politicians who blamed her for her part in what became known as the Behmai Massacre some 18 years earlier. In 2001, she was shot dead in front of her house by a high caste fanatic. She had no police protection and she was an easy target because the police refused to protect the woman they spent half a decade chasing.

Phoolan is forever an enigma. She was gracious and kind, yet she was an illiterate bumpkin turned gangster. She fought for women’s rights in an uncondonable method, and yet later redeemed herself and achieved her goals. Many Indians hated her. They also feared her. And then there were those who loved her. Many city folks were disturbed by her actions and the police quivered at the mention of her name. She was however to some a simple village girl who fought back, made a difference in the world, and made history. Her actions may have been terrible but she will continue to awe generations to come.

 

1. *Wikipedia

2. *Times of India

3. *Statistics and Reports taken by the Indian Government confirmed this

4. *According to the “Life and Times of Phoolan Devi”

5. *This is not the exact transalation verbatim but it means exactly the same thing.

6. *According to “Guyana Undersiege”

 Bibliography, Phoolan Devi

1. “Devi, Phoolan”, Anonymous,Anonymous (Archived)

             www.loc.gov/rr/international/asian/india/resources/india-     society.html

            (Rescource- Internet)

2. “Phoolan Devi”, Anonymous, Anonymous www.guyanaundersiege.com/Women/bandit%20queen.htm-

(Rescource- Internet)

3. “Phoolan Devi, Bandit Queen of India”, Archived www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/phoolan_devi/index.html-

(Rescource- Internet)   

4. “Phoolan Devi, Bandit Queen”, Anonymous, Anonymous www.goodbyemag.com/jul01/devi.html-

       (Rescource- Internet)

5. “Phoolan Devi is Killed”, Anonymous, Anonymous

www.hinduonnet.com/2001/07/26/stories/01260001.htm

      (Rescource- Internet)                     

6. “Phoolan Devi”, Ranjit Banerjee

www.despardes.com/people/phoolandevi.html

(Rescource- Internet)