59 Facts About Phoolan Devi

Phoolan Devi was a woman of the Mallah subcaste who grew up in poverty in a village in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where her family was on the losing side of a land dispute which caused them many problems.

Phoolan Devi's gang robbed higher-caste villages and held up trains and vehicles.

Phoolan Devi was charged in absentia for the 1981 Behmai massacre, in which twenty Thakur men were killed, allegedly on her command.

Phoolan Devi surrendered two years later in a carefully negotiated settlement and spent eleven years in Gwalior prison, awaiting trial.

Phoolan Devi was released in 1994 after her charges were set aside.

Phoolan Devi subsequently became a politician and was elected as a member of parliament for the Samajwadi Party in 1996.

Phoolan Devi lost her seat in 1998, but regained it the following year.

Phoolan Devi was the incumbent at the time of her death in 2001.

Phoolan Devi was assassinated outside her house by Sher Singh Rana, who was convicted for the murder in 2014.

Phoolan Devi's life has inspired several biographies and her dictated autobiography was entitled I, Phoolan Devi.

Phoolan Devi was born on 10 August 1963, in the village of Gorha Ka Purwa in Jalaun district, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Phoolan Devi's family was poor and from the Mallah subcaste, which lies towards the bottom of the Hindu caste system in India, with Mallahs being Shudras who traditionally work as fishermen.

Phoolan Devi's mother was called Moola and her father Devidin; she had four sisters and one brother.

Phoolan Devi's family was compelled to live in a small house on the edge of the village; the uncle and his son continued to harass the family and steal their crops, aiming to drive them away from the village.

At the age of 10, Phoolan Devi decided to protest against the injustice.

In 2018, Phoolan Devi's mother told The Asian Age that she was still fighting to regain the land which Maiyadin had stolen from the family.

Phoolan Devi was married to a man called Puttilal, who offered 100 Indian rupees, a cow and a bicycle to her parents.

Phoolan Devi was sent to stay with a distant relative in the village of Teoga, where she met her recently married cousin Kailash, who ran errands for dacoits.

Once Phoolan Devi was back in Gorha Ka Purwa, the second son of the village leader became infatuated with her and when she did not reciprocate his affections, he attacked her.

Again, Phoolan Devi needed to leave the village and Maiyadin pressured the family to ask Puttilal to take her back, which he did.

When Phoolan Devi threw stones at him and wounded his face, she was arrested by the local police and detained for one month.

Phoolan Devi later told The Atlantic that she was arrested because Maiyadin accused her of robbing him.

Vikram Mallah, the second in command, became fond of Phoolan Devi and objected to her mistreatment, so he killed Gujjar and became leader of the gang.

Phoolan Devi trained Phoolan Devi to use a rifle and the two fell in love.

Phoolan Devi was seen as an incarnation of the Hindu goddess Durga and a doll was produced of her in police uniform wearing a bandoleer.

Phoolan Devi managed to escape and met Man Singh, a bandit with whom she formed a new gang.

Phoolan Devi returned to Behmai with her gang on 14 February 1981; speaking through a loudhailer, she demanded that the villagers hand over Sri Ram Singh and his brother, then the bandits went from house to house looting valuables.

When Phoolan Devi was arrested in 1983, she claimed that she had not been present at the time of the shooting.

Phoolan Devi was celebrated among Dalits for fighting back against her abuse by men of a higher caste and when she eluded capture by the authorities her fame grew.

Phoolan Devi was charged in absentia with 48 crimes, which included kidnapping, looting and murder.

Phoolan Devi's mother was held for five months in Kalpi prison to pressure Phoolan Devi to give herself up.

In 1983, Phoolan Devi surrendered to the authorities after long negotiations led by Rajendra Chaturvedi, a police officer from Bhind who gained the trust of local dacoits after arresting Malkhan Singh Rajpoot.

Phoolan Devi had set conditions regarding her surrender, which included: no death penalty for anyone from her gang; a maximum custodial sentence of eight years; no use of handcuffs; being imprisoned as a group; being imprisoned in Madhya Pradesh and not Uttar Pradesh; her family being given land with space for her goat and cow; and her brother getting a government job.

Phoolan Devi faced the 48 criminal charges and the gang was incarcerated at Gwalior, in Madhya Pradesh.

The others, including Man Singh, agreed to trials in Uttar Pradesh and were all acquitted, but Phoolan Devi refused to make a deal and remained convinced she would be murdered if she went there.

Charges against Phoolan Devi were dropped in 1994 by order of Mulayam Singh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Phoolan Devi won with a margin of 37,000 and had more than 300,000 votes in total.

Phoolan Devi was not the only illiterate MP, joining others such as Bhagwati Devi and Shobhawati Devi.

Phoolan Devi campaigned with limited success for the rights of women and to provide better amenities for the poor.

In 1996, Phoolan Devi lost a Supreme Court appeal to have the charges against her dropped.

Phoolan Devi lost her seat to Virendra Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in the 1998 elections, then regained it the following year.

Phoolan Devi married Umed Singh in 1994; they appeared together in a film, called Sholay Aur Chingari.

Phoolan Devi attempted to block the release, commenting "It's simply not the story of my life".

Phoolan Devi was supported by the feminist and novelist Arundhati Roy, who wrote a critique of the film, arguing that whilst Sen's book presented a complex story with different perspectives, Kapur portrayed Phoolan Devi as a victim without having met her.

When Phoolan Devi discovered this, the couple became estranged, before later reconciling.

Later in 1994, she dictated her autobiography I, Phoolan Devi which was published first in French in 1996 and then in other languages, including English, Japanese and Malay.

The income from book sales supported Phoolan Devi and enabled her to pay her legal fees.

At 13:30 on 25 July 2001, Phoolan Devi was shot dead by three unknown assailants outside her house at 44 Ashoka Road in New Delhi.

Phoolan Devi was shot nine times and her bodyguard was hit twice; he returned fire as the attackers escaped by car.

Phoolan Devi was rushed to Lohia Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival.

Phoolan Devi was aged 37 when she died and serving as an MP.

Phoolan Devi escaped from Tihar Jail in 2004 and was recaptured two years later.

Phoolan Devi was required to not interact with Phoolan Devi's family and to report to the police every six months, whilst informing them where he stayed and what mobile telephone number he was using.

Munni Phoolan Devi alleged that Umed Singh knew the murderers and challenged his alibi.

Phoolan Devi said that Umed Singh was abusive towards Phoolan Devi and that her sister had tried at least twice to divorce him.

Phoolan Devi has become a legendary figure, alongside other outlaws such as Ned Kelly, Sandor Rozsa and Pancho Villa.

Phoolan Devi's life has inspired biographies by Roy Moxham, Mala Sen and Richard Shears and Isobelle Gidley, as well as novels by Irene Frain and Dimitri Friedman.

Phoolan Devi has been represented in fine art by painters such as Rekha Rodwittiya.

Phoolan Devi's life has been commemorated by folk singers, making her into a mythical outlaw figure.