The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend

Reviewed by Mary Greenwood for Reader Views (08//06) "The Bandit Queen of India" is a true story of Phoolan Devi, as told to French journalists Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali who transcribed the story for her since she was unable to read or write. Phoolan Devi was born into a family of boatmen called Mullahs, who were the lowest caste, in a small village in Ottar Pradesh, India. "The Bandit Queen of India" is unrelenting in showing the grueling life of low-caste girls in India. If written as fiction, one could not believe that all this tragedy, cruelty and degradation could come to one person. Phoolan and her sisters are beaten by their parents, mostly by their mother. Times are so bad that her mother was thankful when twin daughters died after birth. Later, when, yet another girl was born, her mother refused to nurse her and made the rest of the family find food for her. Mothers pray to have boy babies. There never was enough to eat. Their caste was expected to do the worst jobs such as picking lice from others' scalps and not ask for anything in return. Her father told her it was her duty to do these things. Once when doing a menial chore, she saw mangoes and asked for a little piece. The upper-caste man slapped her very hard and said: `How dare you ask me for a mango! Today you want a mango. Tomorrow it will be something else!" Devi was married at the age of 11 for a dowry of a cow and bicycle to a man in his 30's she had met once. Her father asked his future son-in-law to wait to take the girl until she was older. Instead the husband takes her and beats and rapes her. Ever her new father-in-law, who pretends to help her, betrays her. Later she is able to escape and goes back to her village where she is ostracized because she did not stay with her husband even though she is only 11. Her parents could only protect her for a few years and finally the husband came back and claimed his wife and brandished his fury on her for escaping earlier. If that was not enough, she was also brutally gang-raped by bandits. Later one of the bandits, Vikram, saved her from sure death and fell in love with her. She became the Bandit Queen and Vikram was the Bandit King. They lived like Robin Hood taking from the rich and giving to the poor, sometimes even returning to the poor the same jewelry that had been stolen. When Vikram was murdered by one of their gang members, Phoolan was able to escape and formed her own gang. She went back to her village and murdered 22 upper-caste men, some of whom were involved in torturing and raping her. There was a great hunt for her, but she was able to evade capture. Later she was able to negotiate a deal with Indira Gandhi who agreed that she would not receive the death penalty. She then turned herself in and spent 11 years in jail. She was released and her case never went to trial. She was well-known and was elected to the Indian Parliament. Her life has come full circle. However, in 2001, on the way

I have grown up following the life of Phoolan Devi and was always curious to know what made her stand up against society and not be the usual docile Indian girl. This book brings home the fact that she was a fighter from the very start. Its an unbelievable account of what a little child has to go through and how her courage helps her survive. I haven't read any book or any account of horrific torture that comes close to what she experienced and survived. A truly amazing woman. It also shows the filthy underbelly of indian society and how hypocritical it is. May they all rot in hell for what they do to women every day and everywhere in India. I applaud what Phoolan did and I hope her life fires the rest of Indian women to never succumb to any kind of humiliation.

This book is amazing. Thank goodness she put her life into her own words before being killed. The part that is so sad/scary is that the violence, hunger and unfairness that Phoolan experienced is not unusual - what is unusual is that she wasn't willing to sit back and let it happen. Truly a modern day female Robin Hood. You will love this book.

This is the amazing tale about Phoolan Devi, the `Bandit Queen' whose actions stirred a nation and brought scandal to a government. She was born in rural India and given to an arrange marriage at the age of 11. From that age she was raped repeatedly b y her husband, by the police and by members of a higher cast, the Thakurs. By the time she was in her teens she had run away, having brought `dishonor' to her parents, and joined a group of bandits. The film `Bandit Queen' portrays these circumstances in brutal detail. This book is her story in her own words, as written by a well known French journalist. This is a fabulous book, rich with detail and clear in its presentation of the life of a poor low caste(not class but caste) women in rural India, whose way of life has not changed for hundreds of years. The event that brought world attention to Phoolan Devi was the massacre of dozens of men in a village. Devi's bandits had rounded up the male villagers and in revenge for an earlier gang rape performed by these men on Devi she ordered them all shot down like the dogs they were. Devi became a crusader, an avenging angel for the rural women of India. In the end she gave herself up and was later elected to Parliament and assassinated. This is her tale, a must read, a brutal account of triumph in extreme circumstances.

I did a web search for Phoolan Devi after hearing about her on NPR, and then pre-ordered this book before it became available. I have a long line of friends waiting to borrow it now, and I can't stop recommending it. I finished it in a few days, in spite of work, because I could not stop. Harrowing beyond the imagination. I hope it sells enough copies to make the whole world develop some righteous outrage.