The Crime Book

46

A

s the villagers of Behmai

in Uttar Pradesh, India,

prepared for a wedding on

Valentine’s Day 1981, 18-year-old

Phoolan Devi plotted her revenge.

Seven months earlier, the low-

caste teenage gang member had

been kidnapped by a rival, largely

high-caste gang in Behmai. For

three weeks, Devi was locked up

and repeatedly raped. She escaped

with the help of two members of

her gang and a low-caste villager,

before rallying the rest of her gang

and returning to the village.

Her gang rounded up 22 of

Behmai’s male villagers, including

two of her rapists, and on Devi’s

orders, shot dead each one. Known

as the Behmai massacre, it was

then India’s largest mass execution

and prompted a huge manhunt.

The legend of the “Bandit Queen”

was born.

Phoolan Devi’s weapon of choice

was a rifle, which gang leader and

partner Vikram Mallah taught her to

use. She eventually laid down the rifle

in front of cheering supporters.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Uttar Pradesh, India

THEME

Banditry

BEFORE

1890s The Big Swords Society,

a peasant self-defence group,

is formed in northern China to

protect against bandits.

1868 Vigilantes break into a

jail in New Albany, Indiana,

killing three members of the

train-robbing Reno Gang.

AFTER

1980s The Sombra Negra

(Black Shadow) group forms

in El Salvador, murdering

criminals and gang members.

2013 Self-styled “Diana,

Huntress of Bus Drivers” kills

two in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico,

as vengeance for alleged

murders and rapes perpetrated

by the city’s bus drivers.

SING OF MY DEEDS, 

TELL OF MY

COMBATS... FORGIVE

MY FAILINGS

PHOOLAN DEVI, 1979–FEBRUARY 1983

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47

Bandit Queen, a film about Devi’s life,

was released in 1994. It was initially

banned by the Indian censor for being

subversive and for its frank depiction

of the brutality of rape.

See also: The James–Younger Gang 24–25 ■ The Wild Bunch 150–51

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS

Robin Hood figure

Devi became a heroine to India’s

lower caste, her crimes glorified as

retribution for the oppression of

women in rural India.

Born on 10 August 1963, to a

low-caste family in rural Uttar

Pradesh, Devi grew up very poor.

At 11, her parents forced her to

marry a man three times her age

in exchange for a cow. In 1979, after

fleeing her abusive husband, she

was shunned by her parents, who

considered her a disgrace.

At 16, with limited options for

survival, she became the sole

female dacoit (armed bandit) in

a local gang. Devi soon rose

to lead the gang, carrying out

dozens of raids and highway

robberies, attacking and looting

upper-caste villages, and

kidnapping rich people for ransom.

In one of her most famous crimes,

her gang captured and looted a

town, then distributed the goods to

the poor, further cementing her

status as a Robin Hood figure.

Catch and release

Devi spent two years evading

capture, concealed by the villagers

she spent her life protecting. But

in February 1983, she negotiated

both her own surrender and the

surrender of her gang members for

considerably reduced sentences.

Devi was arrested in front of

thousands of cheering onlookers

and later charged with 48 crimes,

including 30 charges of robbery and

kidnapping. She spent the next

11 years in prison awaiting trial,

but remained a beacon of hope for

the poor and downtrodden. Devi

was released on parole in 1994, and

all charges were dropped.

She took up politics and was

elected as a Member of Parliament

(MP). However, on the afternoon of

25 July 2001, three masked men

ambushed and fatally shot her.

One of her killers claimed that

Phoolan Devi’s assassination was

carried out as revenge for the

upper-caste men murdered during

the Behmai massacre. ■

Crime and candidacy In some countries, criminals guilty

of committing certain crimes are

not permitted to run for public

office. The rationale is that serious

criminal conduct is inconsistent

with the obligations of citizenship,

and if someone is incapable of

being a citizen, they should not be

entitled to hold office. However,

there is also evidence to suggest

that voters perceive citizens who

break the law for their own ends

much less favourably than people

who break the law for what they

believe to be the public good.

Nothing prevented Phoolan Devi,

charged with multiple serious

crimes including kidnapping and

banditry, from running for office.

A champion of the lower castes

and a heroine to oppressed

women, she had a sizable

following. However, she was

far from universally adored,

particularly among higher

castes, many of whom were

outraged that she was allowed

to stand as a candidate. She

was elected as an MP in the

1996 Indian General Election,

winning with a majority of

37,000 votes. Devi lost her

seat the following year but

regained it in 2001.

I alone knew what I had

suffered. I alone knew what it

felt like to be alive but dead.

Phoolan Devi

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