Editing Phoolan Devi (section)

==Banditry==
===Bandit Queen===
In July 1979, a gang of bandits led by Babu Gujjar kidnapped Phoolan Devi from her family's home, for reasons she explained in multiple ways.{{efn-ua|According to Weaver, "What followed remains obscured, for Phoolan's own accounts have varied significantly";<ref name="Atlantic" /> Snyder says her "uncle orchestrates a kidnapping by one of the many bands of armed robbers [...] that patrolled the Chambal Valley";<ref name="RK" /> Sen says Phoolan Devi received a letter from the dacoits, went to the police who refused to help her and then was taken away by Babu Gujjar;<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|67–69}} Szurlej writes that "she became embroiled in a conflict with her rich relatives, who arranged for bandits to kidnap her".<ref name="Szurlej" />}} Gujjar took her as his property and raped her repeatedly. 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.<ref name="Atlantic" /> He trained Phoolan Devi to use a rifle and the two fell in love.<ref name="QoD" />{{rp|332}}<ref name="Gun">{{cite book |last1=Devi |first1=Phoolan |editor1-last=Cuny |editor1-first=Marie-Therese |editor2-last=Rambali |editor2-first=Paul |title=I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India's Bandit Queen |date=1996 |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |location=London |isbn=978-0-316-87960-6}}</ref>{{rp|285}} Over the following year, the group robbed vehicles and looted higher caste villages, sometimes disguising themselves using stolen police uniforms.<ref name="Insurgents" />{{rp|247}}<ref name="Moxham-Chapter1">{{cite book |last1=Moxham |first1=Roy |title=Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and me |date=2010 |publisher=Rider|location=London |isbn=978-1-84604-182-2 |chapter=Chapter 1 |edition=Ebook}}</ref> The gang lived in the ravines, constantly moving between places such as [[Devariya]], [[Kanpur]] and [[Orai]].<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|113}} They located Puttilal and punished him violently.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|99}} As news of Phoolan Devi's exploits spread, she became popular with the lower castes, who called her Dasyu Sundari (Beautiful Bandit) and celebrated her as a [[Robin Hood]] figure, who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.<ref name="BBC-Champion" /><ref name="Harding-Queen">{{cite news |last1=Harding |first1=Luke |title=The queen is dead |url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,527406,00.html |access-date=18 December 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=26 July 2001 |archive-date=1 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501154943/https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,527406,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Fernandes">{{cite journal |last1=Fernandes |first1=Leela |title=Reading "India's Bandit Queen": A trans/national feminist perspective on the discrepancies of representation |journal=[[Signs (journal)|Signs]] |year=1999 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=123–152 |doi=10.1086/495416 |jstor=3175617 |s2cid=143129445 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3175617 |issn=0097-9740 |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221155316/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3175617 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Seal" /> She was seen as an incarnation of the Hindu goddess [[Durga]] and a doll was produced of her in police uniform wearing a [[bandoleer]].<ref name="BBC-Champion" /><ref name="JRV">{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=C. Mackenzie |last2=Agrawal |first2=Nupur D. |title=The rape that woke up India: Hindu imagination and the rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey |journal=Journal of Religion and Violence |year=2014 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=234–280 |doi=10.5840/jrv2014222 |jstor=26671430 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26671430 |issn=2159-6808 |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221155412/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26671430 |url-status=live }}</ref>

A former leader of the gang, Sri Ram Singh, was released from prison together with his brother Lalla Ram Singh in 1980; they were [[Rajput|Thakur]] men (Thakurs being a subcaste of the [[Kshatriya]] caste) and thus a higher caste than the other members. After they rejoined the bandits, a power struggle ensued and Sri Ram murdered Vikram Mallah. Without the latter's protection, Phoolan Devi was a prisoner of Sri Ram; he took her to the remote village of Behmai where she was repeatedly raped by other Thakurs. In a final indignity, she was forced to collect water for him from the well whilst naked, in front of the villagers.<ref name="Atlantic" /><ref name="Ponzanesi">{{cite book |last1=Ponzanesi |first1=Sandra |title=Doing gender in media, art and culture |chapter=The arena of the colony: Phoolan Devi and postcolonial critique |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, UK |pages=94–105 |doi=10.4324/9781315268026-8 |hdl=1874/380923 |isbn=978-1-315-26802-6 |s2cid=188027215 |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315268026-8/arena-colony-phoolan-devi-postcolonial-critique-sandra-ponzanesi |language=en |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=20 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220225000/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315268026-8/arena-colony-phoolan-devi-postcolonial-critique-sandra-ponzanesi |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Sen" />{{rp|57,125–126}}

===Behmai massacre===
Phoolan Devi managed to escape and met Man Singh, a bandit with whom she formed a new gang.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|137}} They became lovers, living on wild berries and produce stolen from cultivated fields.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|183}}<ref name="Atlantic" /> She 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.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|150–151}}<ref name="QoD" />{{rp|324}} When the two men could not be found, twenty-two men were lined up at the Yamuna River and shot from behind; twenty died and two survived. Since all the dead were at the time thought to be Thakur, Thakur farmers pressured Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]] to impose the rule of law. When Phoolan Devi was arrested in 1983, she claimed that she had not been present at the time of the shooting.<ref name="Harding-Queen" /><ref name="Sen" />{{rp|150–151}} This was corroborated by the evidence of the two men who survived, who stated that they had not seen her and that a man called Ram Avtar was giving orders.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|159}} By other accounts, such as that of journalist [[Khushwant Singh]], it was Phoolan Devi who put the men to death.<ref name="QoD" />{{rp|324}} She was celebrated among [[Dalits]] (people at the bottom of the caste system) for fighting back against her abuse by men of a higher caste and when she eluded capture by the authorities her fame grew.<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine |last1=Karon |first1=Tony |title=India's Bandit Queen died as she once lived |url=https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,168857,00.html |access-date=20 December 2022 |magazine=Time |date=25 July 2001 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221051418/https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,168857,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The killings prompted the resignation of [[V. P. Singh]], the [[Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh]].<ref name="Naim">{{cite news |last1=Naim |first1=Shahira |title=Kshatriya Samaj to honour Phoolan's killer |url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060501/nation.htm#5 |access-date=21 December 2022 |work=The Tribune India |date=30 April 2006 |archive-date=29 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029113752/https://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060501/nation.htm#5 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was later clarified that the dead men were seventeen Thakurs, one Muslim, one Dalit and one member of [[Other Backward Class]]es. Phoolan Devi was charged ''[[Trial in absentia|in absentia]]'' with 48 crimes, which included kidnapping, looting and murder.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|xiii}}<ref name="SD">{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=40 years on, Behmai victims still await justice |url=https://www.siasat.com/40-years-on-behmai-victims-still-await-justice-2090516/ |access-date=10 November 2023 |work=The Siasat Daily |agency=Indo-Asian News Service |date=15 February 2021 |archive-date=10 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231110193235/https://www.siasat.com/40-years-on-behmai-victims-still-await-justice-2090516/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Surrender===
After the massacre, Phoolan Devi remained on the run and was nearly caught by the police on 31 March 1981.<ref name="QoD" />{{rp|335}} Her mother was held for five months in [[Kalpi]] prison to pressure Phoolan Devi to give herself up.<ref name="Moxham-Chapter5" /> 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]]. Dressed in a police uniform and wearing a red bandanna on her head, she bowed before representations of the goddess Durga and [[Mahatma Gandhi]], then [[Prostration|prostrated]] herself in front of [[Arjun Singh (Madhya Pradesh politician)|Arjun Singh]], the [[List of chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh|Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh]], with approximately 8,000 people watching.<ref name="Rajan">{{cite book |last1=Rajan |first1=Rajeswari Sunder |title=The Scandal of the State: Women, Law, and Citizenship in Postcolonial India |date=2003 |publisher=Duke University |location=Durham, North Carolina, US |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1198tw9 |jstor=j.ctv1198tw9 |isbn=978-0-8223-3035-6 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1198tw9 |access-date=16 November 2023 |archive-date=16 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231116154344/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1198tw9 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|222}}<ref name="Atlantic" /> 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.<ref name="Rajan"/>{{rp|229}}<ref name="Atlantic" /> She and seven men, including Man Singh, surrendered.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|215}} Mala Sen records that the male journalists gathered in Bhind to watch her surrender were unimpressed with her plain appearance.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|218}} 

Phoolan Devi faced the 48 criminal charges<ref name="News9">{{cite news |title=Phoolan Devi death anniversary: Lesser-known facts about the 'Bandit Queen' |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |url=https://www.news9live.com/knowledge/phoolan-devi-death-anniversary-lesser-known-facts-about-the-bandit-queen-184888 |access-date=7 May 2023 |work=News9live |date=25 July 2022 |archive-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812000404/https://www.news9live.com/knowledge/phoolan-devi-death-anniversary-lesser-known-facts-about-the-bandit-queen-184888 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the gang was incarcerated at [[Gwalior]], in Madhya Pradesh. Despite the prior agreement that she would not spend more than eight years in prison, she spent over ten years on remand.<ref name="QoD">{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Khushwant |editor1-last=Ashraf |editor1-first=Saad |title=Penguin book of Indian journeys |pages=322–335 |date=2004 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=India |isbn=978-0-14-100764-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BZznRtnus7gC |language=en |chapter=Phoolan Devi, queen of dacoits |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112023535/https://books.google.com/books?id=BZznRtnus7gC |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|322}} During this time, she had tuberculosis and was diagnosed with two stomach tumours.<ref name="Moxham-Chapter2">{{cite book |last1=Moxham |first1=Roy |title=Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and me |date=2010 |publisher=Rider| location=London |isbn=978-1-84604-182-2 |chapter=Chapter 2 |edition=Ebook}}</ref> Whilst receiving hospital treatment, she received a [[hysterectomy]] without her consent.<ref name="Telegraph-obit" /> 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.<ref name="Atlantic" />