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I wanted to prove that we all have our honour, whatever our origins, our caste, the colour of our skin or our sex. — Phoolan Devi
I was about sixteen years old the day Phoolan Devi was shot dead at Delhi. I don’t remember whether I know anything about her at that time, all I remember is that I had heard her name before. Maybe, I had read about her somewhere or watched her on television or my father had talked about her. So, the day she died I felt like low-caste people of India lost someone important. That’s all what I remember about the day, yes dated 25th July, 2001 the day Phoolan Devi was shot.
Days rolled and years passed when few days back I got my hands on the book named “I, Phoolan Devi – The autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen”. As, I was turning pages while reading the book my heart sank many times and every time same question came to my mind why us? Why low-caste people have to suffer in their own homeland, why? Is it because, low-caste people were born under the dark stars? When will we be able to live peacefully without being assaulted? (After reading the book, I also watched the movie named “Bandit Queen” by Shekhar Kapoor and I must admit that the movie shows just a fraction of the sufferings Phoolan Devi endured and what I hate the most about the Shekhar Kapoor and his movie is that he didn’t even dare to meet Phoolan Devi once for the movie!) I was born brought up in a village and I’ve witnessed the pain and suffering women have to undergo. While reading the book, I decided that I’ll review-cum-summary the book as a tribute to the Phoolan Devi for her courage and suffering in the hands of so called upper caste people.
Book, “I, Phoolan Devi – The autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen” is a true story of Phoolan Devi, as narrated to French authors Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali. Phoolan Devi was born into a family of Mallahs, considered lower caste, in the village named Ghura Ka Purwa (Uttar Pradesh). This is a story of a woman who stood against the brutality of Thakurs and woman who decided not to be docile Indian women. Phoolan Devi’s mother always encouraged her not to accept injustice. In Phoolan Devi’s own words:
“The poor must bow down and touch the feet of the rich. The poor eat a few grains of millet while the rich feast on mangoes. The pain of hunger in the belly of the poor produces fear and submission. I tried to submit, as my father said I should, but I was unable. I was like my mother. There was too much anger in me.”
Even at the tender age of ten, she took fight with her cousin, Mayadin, who had grabbed her father’s land; she forced the Panchayat to reopen the land case. She fought with Mayadin when he tried to cut Neem tree, which belonged to her family. At the age of 10, she could hold snakes without fear. She was a brave fighter from the start, never accepted the degradation and kept dignity above everything. There were times when her family had nothing to eat and her mother cursed for giving birth to girls. Mallahs as other lower castes were expected to do all kind of worst jobs such as herding the Thakurs’ animals, cut grass for those animals, collect dung, massage Thakurian’s head, and the worst was they were not allowed to ask anything in return. If, anyone refused to do work for Thakurs, they were beaten; even Phoolan was beaten more than once for refusing to do menial chores for Thakurs.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Caravan 