India's Bandit Queen. The true story of Phoolan Devi
India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi is a book of Indian author Mala Sen about Phoolan Devi .
Content (summary)
Phoolan Devi was forcibly married to 35-year-old Putti Lal at the age of eleven by her impoverished, low- caste parents in the north Indian city of Uttar Pradesh . After being raped by her husband for the first time, she grows into a world of violence that is dominated by the upper-cast minority of her "husband" s village and during which Phoolan Devi has to survive daily humiliation and beatings. Phoolan Devi's escape from this existence to her home village does not change anything: After several group rapes by villagers and police officers, she is driven out of the village naked. She is picked up by the bandits of Man Singh, the relatives of Putti Lal handed over for a ransom and then raped and humiliated. With her future husband Vikram Mallah, she avenges the injustice suffered by the lower castes and also takes revenge on her tormentors. After the death of men from higher castes in Behmai, perceived as a massacre, Phoolan Devi is branded a terrorist, searched nationwide for three years and unsuccessfully hunted by the police and the army. Phoolan Devi earned herself the reputation of an avenger for the injustice suffered by members of the lower castes in India between 1980 and 1983 as the “bandit queen” . Provided by the population with the attributes of the goddess Kali (an incarnation of Durga ) and the fear of a wider heroization , the Indian government offered her impunity . On February 12, 1983, Phoolan Devi and the surviving Dacoits of the Poolan Singh gang surrendered to the Prime Minister of Madhya Pradesh - previously announced publicly, on a stage in front of a portrait of Durga and a picture of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi after a contract had been negotiated who guaranteed her eight years in prison and land for her family.
background
After her surrender in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the majority of the charges against Phoolan Devi were dropped, in accordance with the surrender agreement, but the government of the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, led by high-ranking politicians, refused to dismiss the charges against the alleged murderer of Behma . Devi's comrades-in-arms were sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, this also provided for, while Phoolan Devi had to spend eleven years in Indian prisons without a trial and was pardoned in February 1992 for suffering from cancer. After her election to the Lok Sabha Samajwadi Party (1996-1999), Phoolan Devi probably fell victim to the blood revenge of the residents of Behmai on July 25, 2001 in New Delhi.
Emergence
Mala Sen said it took eight years to research, including Phoolan Devi's multiple visits to prison until she was released. The book was published by Harvill Verlag. The German-language edition appeared under the title The Story of Phoolan Devi: An Indian Woman's Destiny . The documentary film Phoolan Devi - Rebellion of a Bandit was made independently of Mala Sens's publication.
controversy
At the first showing of Bandit Queen in India in August 1994, Shekhar Kapur announced that the film was based on Mala Sens's biography of Phoolan Devi : “ I had a choice between Truth and Aesthetics. I chose Truth, because Truth is Pure . ”Kapur's final version of the film was made against the will of Phoolan Devi - Kapur is said to never have met her in person and never invited her to the film premiere. Kapur's work has been vehemently criticized from various quarters for its excessive portrayal of violence , the nude photos and the rapes portrayed in the film . The writer and feminist Arundhati Roy criticized Kapur's exploitative use of the material and his ignorance of Phoolan Devi as early as 1994 .
Phoolan Devi told Arundhati Roy in an interview that he had also told Mala Sen that he was not involved in the so-called Behlai massacre . Roy supported her in a lawsuit against Mala Sen and Shekpar Kapur, but Phoolan Devi fell out with Arundhaty Roy in the course of the controversial publications against her in her home country.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d India's «bandit queen» Phoolan Devi killed . Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 27, 2001. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- ↑ Hindi for armed robber by singing .
- ↑ a b c Arundhati Roy : Arundhati Roy on Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen: The Great Indian Rape Trick I . sawnet.org. August 22, 1994. Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- ↑ a b Arundhati Roy: Arundhati Roy on Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen: The Great Indian Rape-Trick II . sawnet.org. September 23, 1994. Archived from the original on April 15, 2016. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- ↑ Ash Kotak: Mala Sen obituary . The Guardian . June 13, 2011. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
