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{{Lead too long|date=November 2021}}
{{short description|Indian bandit and politician (1963–2001)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2021}}
{{For|the 1985 Indian film|Phoolan Devi (film)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Phoolan Devi
| image = Phoolan Devi-Bandit Queen.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| office = [[Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha|Member of Parliament]] ([[11th Lok Sabha]])
| term_start = 1996
| term_end = 1998
| constituency = [[Mirzapur (Lok Sabha constituency)|Mirzapur]]
| office2 = [[Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha|Member of Parliament]] ([[13th Lok Sabha]])
| term_start2 = 1999
| term_end2 = 25 July 2001
| constituency2 = [[Mirzapur (Lok Sabha constituency)|Mirzapur]]
| birth_name = Phoolan Mallah
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1963|08|10}}
| birth_place = [[Jalaun district]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], India
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2001|07|25|1963|08|10}}
| death_place = [[New Delhi]], Delhi, India
| death_cause = [[Assassination]] by shooting
| nationality = [[Indian people|Indian]]
| occupation = {{hlist|[[Human rights activist]]|[[Dacoit]]|[[Politician]]}}
| party = [[Samajwadi Party]]
| parents = {{ubl|Devi Din (father)|Moola Devi (mother)}}
| spouse = {{ubl|Umed Singh|Vikram Mallah|Putti Lal}}
| website =
| signature =
}}

'''Phoolan Devi''' (10{{nbsp}}August 1963{{snd}}25{{nbsp}}July 2001), popularly known as "Bandit Queen", was an Indian female rights activist, [[bandit]] and politician from the [[Samajwadi Party]] who later served as [[Member of Parliament]].

Born into a poor family in rural [[Uttar Pradesh]], Devi endured poverty, [[child marriage]] and had an abusive marriage before taking to a life of crime. Having developed major differences with her parents and being raped multiple times by her husband, the teenage Devi sought escape by running away and joining a gang of bandits. She was the only woman in that gang, and her relationship with one gang member, coupled with [[Caste System in India|caste]] difference, caused a gunfight between gang members. Devi's lover, Vikram Mallah, was killed in that gunfight. The victorious rival faction took Devi to their village of Behmai, confined her in a room, and took turns to rape her repeatedly over several weeks. After escaping, Devi rejoined the remnants of her Mallah's faction who were gangs of [[Mallaah]]. A few months later, her new gang descended upon the village of Behmai to exact revenge for what she had suffered.<ref name="Devi">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vNkHAAACAAJ | title=I, Phoolan Devi | publisher=Warner Books | author=Devi, Phoolan | year=1996 | pages=384–388 | isbn=0-7515-1964-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/14/sher-singh-rana-murderer-phoolan-devi-bandit-queen-life-sentence|title=Killer of Phoolan Devi, India's 'Bandit Queen', given life sentence|agency=Associated Press|date=14 August 2014|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 October 2017|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> As many as twenty-two men belonging to that village were shot dead by Devi's gang.

Devi evaded capture for two years after the massacre before she and her few surviving gang members surrendered to the police in 1983. She was charged with 48 crimes, including multiple murders, plunder, arson and kidnapping for ransom.<ref name="Phoolan Devi">{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1335253/Phoolan-Devi.html | title=Phoolan Devi | newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] | date=26 July 2001}}</ref> Phoolan spent the next eleven years in jail, as the various charges against her were tried in court. The respectful sobriquet 'Devi' was conferred upon her by the media and public at this point.<ref name="gua_dead">{{cite web | url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,527406,00.html | title = The queen is dead | work = The Guardian | date = 26 July 2001 | access-date = 18 November 2011 }}</ref>

In 1994, the state government headed by [[Mulayam Singh Yadav]] of the [[Samajwadi Party]] withdrew all charges against her and Devi was released.<ref name="Phoolan Devi"/> She then stood for election to parliament as a candidate of the [[Samajwadi Party]] and was twice elected to the [[Lok Sabha]] as the [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Mirzapur (Lok Sabha constituency)|Mirzapur]]. In 2001, she was shot dead at the gates of her official bungalow (allotted to her as [[Member of Parliament|MP]]) in New Delhi by [[Sher Singh Rana]] whose kinsmen had been slaughtered at Behmai by her gang. The 1994 film ''[[Bandit Queen]]'' (made around the time of her release from jail) is loosely based on her life until that point.

==Early life==
Devi was born into the [[Mallah]] (boatmen) [[caste]],<ref name="goodbyemag_queen">{{cite web |url=http://www.goodbyemag.com/jul01/devi.html |title=Phoolan Devi, India's Bandit Queen |access-date=11 December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051228081825/http://www.goodbyemag.com/jul01/devi.html |archive-date=28 December 2005 }}</ref> in the small village of Ghura Ka Purwa (also spelled Gorha ka Purwa) in [[Jalaun District]], Uttar Pradesh.<ref name="Henry_Hindi_1994">{{cite book | title = A Hindi movie | author = Henry Scholberg | publisher = Indus ([[HarperCollins]] India) | year = 1994 | isbn = 978-81-7223-097-5 | page = 24 }}</ref> She was the fourth and youngest child of Moola and her husband Devi Din Mallah.<ref>India today, Volume 26. Thomson Living Media India Ltd., 2001</ref> Besides Phoolan, only one older sister survived to adulthood.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Phoolan's family was poor. The major asset owned by them was around {{convert|1|acre|ha|1|abbr=off}} of farmland with a large but very old [[neem]] tree on it.<ref name="JanS_2011">{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ggVgQwAACAAJ | title = Good Girls Don't Make History | author = Jan Stradling | publisher = Pier | year = 2011 | isbn = 978-1-74266-623-5 | chapter = 12: Phoolan Devi - 'Bandit Queen', freedom fighter, politician }}</ref> When Phoolan was eleven years old, her paternal grandparents' death led to her father's elder brother's son, Maya Din Mallah, proposing to cut down the neem tree to cultivate that patch of land with more profitable crops.<ref name="John_Insurgents_2011">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzzBvVpXXJsC | title = Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits | author = John Arquilla | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | year = 2011 | isbn = 9781566638326 | pages = 245–251 }}</ref> Phoolan's father agreed to it with mild protest. However, the teenage Phoolan was enraged and protested, publicly taunting and verbally abusing her cousin for several weeks,<ref name="JanS_2011"/> going on to physically assault him. She then gathered a few village girls and staged a ''Dharna'' ([[sit-in]]) on the land, and did not budge even when the family elders tried to use force to drag them home. She was eventually beaten unconscious with a brick.<ref name="Roy on Phoolan">{{cite news | url=http://www.sawnet.org/books/writing/roy_bq1.html | title=The Great Indian Rape-Trick | date=22 August 1992 | access-date=11 December 2015 | work=SAWNET -The South Asian Women's NETwork | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414182145/http://www.sawnet.org/books/writing/roy_bq1.html | archive-date=14 April 2016 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

A few months after this incident, her family arranged for her to marry a man named Puttilal Mallah, who lived several miles (kilometers) away and was in his 30s, three times her age.<ref name="bbc_champion">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1456441.stm | title=Phoolan Devi: Champion of the poor | date=25 July 2001 | access-date=11 December 2006 | work=BBC News}}</ref> She was physically and sexually abused by her husband and, after several attempts at running away, was returned to her family in 'disgrace'.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

In retaliation for being humiliated by Phoolan, Maya Din went to the local police and accused Phoolan of stealing from him. The police kept her locked up for three days, physically abused her, and then let her off with a warning.<ref name="John_Insurgents_2011"/>

After Phoolan was released from jail, at the age of 16, her parents once again wanted to send her to her husband. After Phoolan's family offered generous gifts, her in-laws finally agreed to take her back. Phoolan's parents performed the ceremony of ''gauna'' (after which a married woman begins to cohabit with her husband), took Phoolan to her husband's house, and left her there.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Within a few months, Phoolan, this time no longer a virgin, again returned to her parents. Shortly afterwards, her in-laws returned the gifts that Phoolan's parents had given them and sent word that under no circumstances would they accept Phoolan back again. This was in 1979, and Phoolan was only a few months past her 16th birthday. She later claimed in her autobiography that her husband was a man of "very bad character".{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} A wife leaving her husband, or being abandoned by her husband, is a serious taboo in rural India, and Phoolan was marked as a social outcast.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

==Life as a bandit==
The region where Phoolan lived, [[Bundelkhand]], is even today extremely poor, arid and devoid of industry; most of the able-bodied men migrate to large cities in search of work. During the period in question, industry was depressed even in the large cities, and daily life was a grim engagement with subsistence farming in a dry region with poor soil. It was not unusual for young men to seek escape from fruitless labour in the fields by running away to the nearby ravines (the main geographical feature of the region), forming groups of bandits, and plundering their more prosperous neighbours in the villages or passing townspeople on the highways.

Shortly after her final sojourn in her husband's house, and in the same year (1979), Phoolan fell in the company of a gang of [[dacoit]]s. How exactly this happened is unclear; some say that she was kidnapped by them because her "spirited temperament," estrangement from her own family and outspoken rejection of her husband had attracted the attention of the bandits, while others say that she "walked away from her life."<ref name="John_Insurgents_2011"/> In her autobiography, she merely says ''"kismet ko yehi manzoor tha"'' ("it was the dictate of fate") that she become part of a gang of bandits.

The gang leader, Babu Gujjar, raped and brutalized her for three days. At this juncture, Phoolan was saved from rape by Vikram Mallah, the second-in-command of the gang, who belonged to Phoolan's own Mallah caste. In the altercation connected to the rape, Vikram Mallah killed Babu Gujjar. The next morning, he assumed leadership of the gang.

===Relationship with Vikram Mallah===
Undaunted by the fact that Vikram already had a wife and that she likewise had a husband, Phoolan and Vikram began [[cohabit]]ing together. A few weeks later, the gang attacked the village where Phoolan's husband Puttilal Mallah lived. Phoolan herself dragged him out of his house and stabbed him in front of the villagers. The gang left him lying almost dead by the road, with a note warning older men not to marry young girls. The man survived, but carried a scar running down his abdomen for the rest of his life. He lived his life as a recluse because most people in the village began avoiding his company out of fear of the bandits.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moxham|first=Roy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sHzTs5pLkvwC|title=Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me|date=2010|publisher=Rider|isbn=978-1-84604-182-2|language=en}}</ref>

Phoolan learned how to use a rifle from Vikram, and participated in the gang's activities across [[Bundelkhand]], which straddles the border between Uttar Pradesh and [[Madhya Pradesh]]. This included attacking and looting villages where upper-caste people lived, kidnapping relatively prosperous people for [[ransom]], and committing occasional highway robberies which targeted flashy cars. Phoolan was the only woman member of that gang of dacoits. After every crime, she would visit a [[Durga]] temple and thank the Goddess for her protection.<ref name="goodbyemag_queen" /> The gang's main hideouts were in the ravines of the [[Chambal River]]. According to legend, Vikram taught Phoolan, "If you are going to kill, kill twenty, not just one. For if you kill twenty, your fame will spread; if you kill only one, they will hang you as a murderess."<ref>{{cite web|date=25 July 2001|title=India's bandit queen died as she once lived|url=http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,168857,00.html|work=Time}}</ref>

Sometime later, Shri Ram and Lalla Ram, two upper-caste brothers who had been caught by the police, were released from jail and came back to the gang. They were outraged to hear of the murder of Babu Gujjar, their former leader, and held Phoolan responsible for inciting the act.<ref name="John_Insurgents_2011"/> A scuffle then ensued between Shri Ram and Phoolan. The brothers' resentment was exacerbated by the fact that Phoolan and Vikram both belonged to the [[Mallaah]] caste of boatmen, lower than the land-owning caste to which they themselves belonged.

Over a period of time, the brothers recruited more upper caste in the gang and began abusing the Mallahs of the villages they ransacked, leading to the anger and subsequent exit of the Mallahs of the gang. Vikram Mallah then suggested that the gang be divided into two, one comprising mainly upper and the other mainly Mallahs. Shri Ram and Lalla Ram refused this suggestion stating that the gang had always included a mixture of castes. Meanwhile, the other Mallahs were also not happy with Vikram Mallah. The fact that he alone had a woman cohabiting with him incited jealousy; some of the other Mallahs had bonds of kinship with Vikram's actual wife; and Phoolan's abuses made them dislike her.

A few days after the proposal for division had been floated, a quarrel ensued between Shri Ram and Vikram Mallah, resulting in a gunfight. Vikram and Phoolan escaped in the dark. However, they were tracked down and Vikram Mallah was killed. Phoolan was taken by the victorious faction to the upper caste dominated village of Behmai, home to Shri Ram, Lalla Ram and several of the new recruits.<ref name="goodbyemag_queen" />

===Detainment in Behmai===
Phoolan was locked up in a room in one of the houses in Behmai village. She was beaten, raped and humiliated by several upper caste Thakur men over a period of three weeks. In a final indignity, they paraded her naked around the village.<ref name="gua_dead"/><ref name="John_Insurgents_2011"/> She then managed to escape, after three weeks of captivity, with the help of a low-caste villager of Behmai and two Mallah members from Vikram's gang, including Man Singh Mallah.

===A new gang===
Phoolan and Man Singh soon became lovers and joint leaders of a gang composed solely of Mallahs. The gang carried out a series of violent raids and robberies across Bundelkhand, usually (but not always) targeting upper-caste people. Some say that Phoolan targeted only the upper-caste people and shared the loot with the lower-caste people, but the Indian authorities claim this is a myth; there is no evidence of Phoolan or her partners in crime sharing money with anyone, whether low-caste or otherwise.<ref name="bbc_champion" />

===Massacre in Behmai===
Several months after her escape from Behmai, Phoolan returned to the village to seek revenge. On the evening of 14 February 1981, Phoolan marched into Behmai with her gang and demanded that her tormentors be produced before her. The two men could not be found. She then rounded up twenty-two young men from the village and ordered them killed.<ref name="gua_dead"/><ref name="goodbyemag_queen"/>

The Behmai massacre provoked outrage across the country. [[V. P. Singh]], the then [[Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh]], resigned.<ref name="tribune_samaj_honor">{{cite web
|url= http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060501/nation.htm#5
|title=Kshatriya Samaj to honour Phoolan's killer
|date=21 May 2006
|work=The Tribune|location=Chandigarh
|access-date=11 December 2006
}}</ref> A massive police manhunt was launched but soon failed. It began to be said that the manhunt was not successful because Phoolan had the support of poor people in the region; stories on the [[Robin Hood]] model began circulating in the media. Phoolan began to be called the Bandit Queen, and she was glorified by sections of the Indian media<ref name="bbc_champion"/> as an intrepid and undaunted woman, the underdog struggling to survive in the world.

===Surrender and jail term===
Two years after the Behmai massacre, the police had still not captured Phoolan. The [[Indira Gandhi]] Government decided to negotiate a surrender. By this time, Phoolan was in poor health and most of her gang members were dead, some having died at the hands of the police, others at the hands of rival gangs. In February 1983, she agreed to surrender to the authorities. However, she said that she did not trust the [[Uttar Pradesh Police]] and insisted that she would only surrender to the [[Madhya Pradesh]] Police. She also insisted that she would lay down her arms only before the pictures of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and the Hindu goddess [[Durga]], not to the police.<ref name="anuja_power">{{cite web|url=http://people.virginia.edu/~pm9k/gifs/ZoForth/Pholan/power.html
|title=Phoolan Power|author=Anuja Pande|access-date=11 December 2006}}</ref> She laid down four further conditions:
# A promise that the death penalty would not be imposed on any member of her gang who surrenders
# The term for the other members of the gang should not exceed eight years.
# A plot of land to be given to her
# Her entire family should be escorted by the police to witness her surrender ceremony

An unarmed police chief met her at a rendezvous in the Chambal ravines. They travelled to [[Bhind]] in Madhya Pradesh, where she laid down her rifle before the portraits of Gandhi and Goddess Durga. The onlookers included a crowd of around 10,000 people and 300 policemen, apart from the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, [[Arjun Singh (former politician)|Arjun Singh]]. Other members of her gang also surrendered with her.

Phoolan was charged with as many as forty-eight crimes, including thirty charges of dacoity (banditry) and kidnapping. Her trial was delayed for eleven years, during which time she remained in prison as an undertrial. During this period, she was operated on for [[ovarian cyst]]s and underwent a [[hysterectomy]]. The doctor of the hospital reportedly joked that "We don't want Phoolan Devi breeding more Phoolan Devis".<ref>{{cite news|title=Phoolan Devi|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1335253/Phoolan-Devi.html|access-date=9 August 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=26 July 2001}}</ref> This statement alone would indicate a disrespect of her [[reproductive rights]].{{cn|date=July 2021|reason=Who said it?}} [[Forced sterilization]] is a common abuse against socially outcast women or those branded criminals.{{cn|date=July 2021|reason=Who said it?}} She was finally released on parole in 1994 after intercession by [[Vishambhar Prasad Nishad]], the leader of the [[Nishadha]] community (another name for the ''Mallah'' community of boatmen and fisherfolk). The Government of Uttar Pradesh, led by [[Mulayam Singh Yadav]], withdrew all cases against her. This move shocked the country and became a matter of public discussion and controversy.{{cn|date=July 2021}}

===Marriage with Ummed Singh===

Phoolan later married Ummed Singh. Ummed Singh contested the 2004 and 2009 elections on Indian National Congress's ticket. In 2014 he contested election on Bahujan Samaj Party's ticket. Phoolan's sister Munni Devi later accused him of being involved in Phoolan's murder.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bandit-queens-sister-claims-sher-singh-wrongly-convicted-for-phoolans-murder/articleshow/64261756.cms|title=bandit: Bandit queen's sister claims Sher Singh wrongly convicted for Phoolan's murder|date=May 21, 2018|first=Anuja|last=Jaiswal|website=The Times of India}}</ref>

==Conversion to Buddhism==
On 15 February 1995, Phoolan Devi and her husband Ummed Singh embraced [[Buddhism]] at the famous Buddhist site [[Deekshabhoomi]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=Jul 27, 2001|title=Phoolan had embraced Buddhism|location=Pune|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Phoolan-had-embraced-Buddhism/articleshow/1406816872.cms|access-date=2021-01-24|website=The Times of India|language=en}}</ref>

==Member of Parliament==
Phoolan stood for election to the [[11th Lok Sabha]] from the [[Mirzapur (Lok Sabha constituency)|Mirzapur]] constituency in [[Uttar Pradesh]]. She contested the election as a member of the [[Samajwadi Party]] of [[Mulayam Singh Yadav]], whose government had withdrawn all cases against her and summarily released her from prison. She won the election and served as an MP during the term of the [[11th Lok Sabha]] (1996–98). She lost her seat in the [[1998 Indian general election|1998 election]] but was re-elected in the [[1999 Indian general election|1999 election]] and was the sitting member of parliament for [[Mirzapur]] when she was assassinated.

==Assassination==
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Assassination of Phoolan Devi
| partof =
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| map =
| map_size =
| map_alt =
| map_caption =
| location = New Delhi
| target =
| coordinates = 28.6139° N, 77.2089° E
| date = 25 July 2001
| time = 1:30 pm
| timezone = [[UTC]]+5.5
| type = Murder
| fatalities = Phoolan Devi
| injuries = 1 (Balinder Singh)
| victims =
| perpetrators = 3 unidentified gunmen
| weapons = [[Webley & Scott#Webley & Scott automatic pistols|Webley & Scott pistol]], [[IOF .32 Revolver]]
| numparts =
| dfens =
| motive = Revenge
}}

At 1:30 p.m. [[Indian Standard Time|IST]] (08:30 [[Coordinated Universal Time|UTC]]) on 25 July 2001, Devi was shot dead by three masked gunmen outside of her Delhi bungalow. She was hit nine times, variously in the head, chest, shoulder and right arm. Her personal security guard, Balinder Singh, was shot in his right chest and right arm, who returned fire with a 9-mm service pistol when the gunmen fled the scene in a [[Maruti 800]] car. They abandoned the car mid-way and boarded an auto rickshaw. The police recovered a [[Webley & Scott#Webley & Scott automatic pistols|Webley & Scott pistol]] and an [[improvised firearm]], an [[IOF .32 Revolver]] from the spot, along with nine empty and 15 live rounds, from the car.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/2001/07/26/stories/01260001.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020131194802/http://thehindu.com/thehindu/2001/07/26/stories/01260001.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=31 January 2002|title=Phoolan Devi shot dead|access-date=31 October 2018|work=[[The Hindu]]|date=26 July 2001}}</ref>

Devi was taken to [[Ram Manohar Lohia hospital]] but was declared dead. The prime suspect, [[Sher Singh Rana]], later surrendered to the police.<ref>{{cite news|title=Profile of Sher Singh Rana|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Profile-of-Sher-Singh-Rana/articleshow/1154821372.cms|access-date=9 August 2012|newspaper=The Times of India|date=27 July 2001}}</ref> Rana allegedly claimed to have murdered Devi in revenge for the upper-caste men she gunned down in the Behmai massacre.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1335484/Man-arrested-for-murder-of-Bandit-Queen.html|title=Man arrested for murder of 'Bandit Queen'|access-date=9 August 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=27 July 2001}}</ref> In the latest ruling, on 14 August 2014, the court sentenced Rana to life in prison and a fine.<ref>{{cite news|title=Profile of life sentences|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Life-sentence-to-Sher-Singh-Rana-for-killing-Phoolan-Devi/articleshow/40249822.cms|access-date=14 August 2014|newspaper=The Times of India|date=14 August 2014}}</ref>

===Aftermath===
In the immediate aftermath of the murder, the police were accused of incompetence in their handling of the case. It was alleged that a party worker picked up revolvers that had been dumped by the killers and hid them. Three other people staying in her house were accused of knowing about the revolvers. The revolvers then disappeared before the police could conduct forensic tests on them.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}}

Sher Singh Rana, the main accused, was convicted by a Delhi court on 8 August 2014. However, the other ten accused were acquitted. Rana was convicted of the offences under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) under the IPC.<ref>{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=Aug 8, 2014|title=Main accused in Phoolan Devi's killing convicted|work=News Kannada|agency=IANS|url=http://www.newskarnataka.com/india/Main-accused-in-Phoolan-Devis-killing-convicted/|url-status=dead|access-date=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809135532/http://www.newskarnataka.com/india/Main-accused-in-Phoolan-Devis-killing-convicted/|archive-date=9 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Mystery surrounds Bandit Queen murder|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/jul/30/worlddispatch.lukeharding|access-date=10 August 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 July 2001}}</ref> On 14 August 2014 Rana was sentenced to a life term by a Delhi court.<ref name=toi4>{{cite news|last1=Shakil|first1=Sana|title=Life sentence to Sher Singh Rana for killing Phoolan Devi|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Life-sentence-to-Sher-Singh-Rana-for-killing-Phoolan-Devi/articleshow/40249822.cms|access-date=14 August 2014|work=The Times of India|date=14 August 2014}}</ref> He was subsequently granted bail in October 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sher Singh Rana Gets Bail In Phoolan Devi Murder Case|url=https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/sher-singh-rana-gets-bail-in-phoolan-devi-murder-case-1477819|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190823103221/https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/sher-singh-rana-gets-bail-in-phoolan-devi-murder-case-1477819|archive-date=23 August 2019|access-date=3 December 2020|website=NDTV.com}}</ref>

==Movie and autobiography==
[[Shekhar Kapur]] made a movie ''[[Bandit Queen]]'' (1994) about Phoolan Devi's life up to her 1983 surrender, based on Mala Sen's 1993 book ''India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi''.<ref name="Telegraph_Mala_201105">{{cite web | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/8546445/Mala-Sen.html | title = Obituaries: Mala Sen | work=The Telegraph | date = 30 May 2011 | access-date = 28 November 2011 }}</ref> Although Phoolan Devi is a heroine in the film, she fiercely disputed its accuracy and fought to get it banned in India. She even threatened to [[self-immolation|immolate]] herself outside a theater if the film were not withdrawn. Eventually, she withdrew her objections after the producer [[Channel 4]] paid her £40,000.<ref name="Telegraph_Mala_201105"/> The film brought her international recognition. Author-activist [[Arundhati Roy]] in her film review entitled, "The Great Indian Rape Trick", questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her permission", and alleged Shekhar Kapur of exploiting Phoolan Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its meaning.<ref name="Roy on Phoolan" />

In 1985, another low budget Bengali movie [[Phoolan Devi (1985 film)|''Phoolan Devi'']] was released, loosely based on Phoolan's life. This film was directed by Ashok Roy and starred by [[Suresh Oberoi]], [[Rita Bhaduri]] and [[Joy Banerjee]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2325905/|title=Phoolan Devi (1985)|date=n.d.|publisher=IMDb|access-date=13 July 2017}}</ref> ''Phoolan Bai'', a 2001 Indian film by V. Menon was also inspired by her life.<ref>{{cite web |title=PHOOLAN BAI (2001) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b847d133a |website=[[BFI]] |language=en}}</ref>

Although she was illiterate, Phoolan composed her autobiography entitled ''The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey From Peasant to International Legend'', with the help of international authors Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali.<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/Bandit-Queen-India-Amazing-International/dp/1592286410/ The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend] @ Amazon.com. Retrieved 25 November 2011.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Jagga Jatt]]
* [[Paan Singh Tomar]]
* [[Seema Parihar]]
*[[Ashok Mahto gang]]
* [[List of assassinated Indian politicians]]

==References==
{{Reflist|20em}}

==Further reading==
'''Books on Phoolan Devi'''
* ''Devi: The Bandit Queen'', by Richard Shears, Isobelle Gidley. Published by Allen & Unwin, 1984. {{ISBN|0-04-920097-6}}.
* ''Devi'', by Irène Frain, 1992. Published by Fayard/Lattès.
* ''India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi'', by Mala Sen. Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. {{ISBN|0-04-440888-9}}.
* ''I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India's Bandit Queen'', by Phoolan Devi, Marie-Thérèse Cuny, Paul Rambali. Published by Little, Brown and Co., 1996. {{ISBN|0-316-87960-6}}.
* {{cite book
| date = 3 June 2010
| title = Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me
| last = Moxham
| first = Roy
| publisher = [[Rider (imprint)|Rider]]
| isbn = 978-1-84604-182-2
}}
* Phoolan Devi, with Marie-Therese Cuny, and Paul Rambali, ''The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey from Peasant to International Legend'', Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1-59228-641-6}}
* Phoolan Devi – by N.Pugazhendhi, Coimbatore in TAMIL translated from Malayalam.

'''Other sources'''
* Gabriel, Karen (2009). [https://du-in.academia.edu/KarenGabriel/Papers/922265/Reading_Rape_Sexual_Difference_Representational_Excess_and_Narrative_Containment "Reading Rape: Sexual Difference, Representational Excess and Narrative Containment"]. pp. 9–16.
* ''[https://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199611/bandit-queen India's Bandit Queen]'' by Mary Anne Weaver
* Peacock, J. Sunita "[https://books.google.com/books?id=A786X6Zyz3cC Phoolan Devi: The Primordial Tradition of the Bandit Queen]." in: ''Transnationalism and the Asian American Heroine: Essays on Literature, Film, Myth and Media.'' pp. 187–195.

==External links==
* [http://www.people.virginia.edu/~pm9k/gifs/ZoForth/Pholan/phoolan.html A collection of links related to Phoolan Devi] .
* {{cite web |title=The Phoolan Devi Murder home page |url=http://www.rediff.com/news/phoolan.htm |work=Rediff.com}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070602015649/http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/phoolan_devi/index.html Crime Library article on Phoolan Devi]

{{Authority control}}

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Phoolan Devi - Revision history

>Flosserie: Edited the lead to make it shorter