By Jagmohan Singh Barhok

The way young Phoolan Devi was maltreated, brutally gangraped & made to parade nude in the village, was indeed a nerve chilling saga of human depravity, eventually forcing her to take up arms and become a dreaded bandit.

Born in a small village in Uttar Pradesh, Phoolan Devi suffered poverty right from the beginning added by an abusive marriage at an early age. After her brutal gangrape, she fled to the ravines of Chambal to become a bandit to avenge the insult and trauma meted out to her. She joined a gang and was in love with one of the members. This sparked an envy amongst dacoits .Resultantly an in-fight ensued and her lover Vikram was killed. The victorious group took her to village Behmai where she was gangraped for weeks before managing to escape. After escaping, she joined the rival faction and found another lover to become a dreaded dacoit in the days that followed. Within months, the bandits lead by Phoolan Devi descended upon the village Behmai killing as many as twenty-two men , thus avenging her insult.

In the manhunt that ensued , many members of her gang were killed, forcing her to take shelter in the ravines of Chambal before she eventually decided to surrender under certain conditions. She was charged with 48 crimes under various sections of IPC including multiple murders, plunder, arson , kidnapping ,plunder & acts of ransom. She was tried in the court and remained in judicial custody for many months before she was released by the state government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1994 withdrawing all charges framed against her. Her act of revenge was portrayed by the press as an act of upright rebellion by a woman.

Noted director Shekhar Kapoor made a film on her life titled “Bandit Queen” in 1994 starring Seema Biswas as Phoolan Devi supported by Nirmal Pandey as Vikram ( her lover), Saurabh Shukla, Manoj Bajpayee & Raghuvir Yadav .Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan scored the music. The film received mixed reactions from different quarters adding to the stupenduous success. It reportedly collected over 200 million Indian rupee against a budgeted cost of 30 million. The film received worldwide publicity & acclaim, winning the Filmfare Best Actress Award for Biswas. She also won National Film Award for her daringly bold portrayal in the film .She was made to roam through the village fully nude with her hands on her private parts .Seema Biswas later appeared in many films.

Phoolan Devi contested Lok Sabha election twice on Samajwadi Party ticket from Mirzapur and won. In 2001 she was shot dead outside her official residence in New Delhi by Sher Singh Rana whose relatives were slaughtered by Phoolan’s gang at village Behmai.

Surprisingly, Phoolan Devi challenged the veracity and accuracy of the cleverly conceived film and sought it to be immediately banned. She withdrew her objections after the producer Channel 4 paid her British pounds 40,000. Noted female author ,Arundhati Roy in her film review entitled, “The Great Indian Rape Trick”, questioned the right to “restage the rape of a living woman without her permission”, and alleged Shekhar Kapur of exploiting Phoolan Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning. Marie Therese Cuny & Paul Rambali composed her autobiography titled “The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman’s Amazing Journey From Peasant to International Legend”.
Sher Singh Rana was tried in the court & was awarded life imprisonment for killing Phoolan Devi in 2014. He, however, was released on bail by the same court in 2017. He got married later.

Phoolan Devi was assassinated on 25 July 2001.