Customer Reviews

The Bandit Queen of India: An Indian Woman's Amazing Journey From Peasant to International Legend

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I have grown up following the life of Phoolan Devi and was always curious to know what made her stand up against society and not be the usual docile Indian girl. This book brings home the fact that she was a fighter from the very start. Its an unbelievable account of what a little child has to go through and how her courage helps her survive. I haven't read any book or any account of horrific torture that comes close to what she experienced and survived. A truly amazing woman. It also shows the filthy underbelly of indian society and how hypocritical it is. May they all rot in hell for what they do to women every day and everywhere in India. I applaud what Phoolan did and I hope her life fires the rest of Indian women to never succumb to any kind of humiliation.

This book is amazing. Thank goodness she put her life into her own words before being killed. The part that is so sad/scary is that the violence, hunger and unfairness that Phoolan experienced is not unusual - what is unusual is that she wasn't willing to sit back and let it happen. Truly a modern day female Robin Hood. You will love this book.

I did a web search for Phoolan Devi after hearing about her on NPR, and then pre-ordered this book before it became available. I have a long line of friends waiting to borrow it now, and I can't stop recommending it. I finished it in a few days, in spite of work, because I could not stop. Harrowing beyond the imagination. I hope it sells enough copies to make the whole world develop some righteous outrage.

Phoolan Devi is an amazing individual no doubt who overcame obstacles bigger than most of us face. Here's what I like about the book: It was a tale told from the eyes of someone who was in poverty of what it's REALLY like... generally we hear about the situations of such people through the eyes of an empathetic outsider and here is a vivid inside perspective. Most impoverished people never get to tell their tales and I think the two authors who wrote what Phoolan dictated (she could not read/write) did the world a favor. This book has raised my awareness.

From a story perspective, it is more incredible than most fictional novels.

for an illiterate and uneducated person of a low cast this true story makes me see india in a new light. Now i am inspired to read more about indian mythology, religon and culture. Her death and suffering where not in vain...

This book was big and thick, and I would have read it through from beginning to end if I could have. I never wanted to set it down for a moment. One of the most powerful stories I have ever read of human survival and resistance. A harrowing life of torture, rape, and abuse -- and vengeance, justice, and redemption. Phoolan Devi is perhaps the greatest person of the 20th centuryt. She fought and over-came nearly everty obstacle: poverty, ignorance, explotation, patriarchy, etc.. A true tale of personal struggle and personal survival against all odds.
This book was MUCH BETTER than the movie. Much more details, much more human, much more brutal and ugly, and also much more enjoyable and heart-felt.
Phoolan Devi was born to desperatelt poor and exploited parents. At 11 the rapes began -- by her 35 year old "husband" (who had to use a knife...), by thakurs of her village, by bandits, etc.. And despite the hunger and deperation of her situation, she FOUGHT BACK -- successfully. She brought justice -- for herself, and for so many in her situation. She castrated the rapists, she took from the rich and gave back to the poor, she righted numerous wrongs...she was a goddess. She survived it all...even became a member of the Indian parliament...

This is the amazing tale about Phoolan Devi, the `Bandit Queen' whose actions stirred a nation and brought scandal to a government. She was born in rural India and given to an arrange marriage at the age of 11. From that age she was raped repeatedly b y her husband, by the police and by members of a higher cast, the Thakurs. By the time she was in her teens she had run away, having brought `dishonor' to her parents, and joined a group of bandits.

The film `Bandit Queen' portrays these circumstances in brutal detail. This book is her story in her own words, as written by a well known French journalist. This is a fabulous book, rich with detail and clear in its presentation of the life of a poor low caste(not class but caste) women in rural India, whose way of life has not changed for hundreds of years.

The event that brought world attention to Phoolan Devi was the massacre of dozens of men in a village. Devi's bandits had rounded up the male villagers and in revenge for an earlier gang rape performed by these men on Devi she ordered them all shot down like the dogs they were. Devi became a crusader, an avenging angel for the rural women of India. In the end she gave herself up and was later elected to Parliament and assassinated. This is her tale, a must read, a brutal account of triumph in extreme circumstances.

This book is about the life of the real life Bandit queen Poolan Devi. Born to the lowest caste in India and abused through her childhood she rebelled, and gained noteriety and hero status with the people of India. This is a heart wrenching tale of the brutal caste system in India. And the story of a woman fighting back. I was glued to this book. It begins during her life as a child and continues until she was murdered later in life after becoming a politician for change. The story is graphic and not for the weak. This story of India shocked me. The caste system is so alien to me and the cruelty this woman had to endure as well as others really shocked me. I'm glad I wasn't born in India ! I'd be a rebel too!

Amazing to realize that this kind of stories are real, and that enven though they are terrible, they are not that unique in our world. It is a must to read if you are interested in a woman's bravery.

Reviewed by Mary Greenwood for Reader Views (8/06)

"The Bandit Queen of India" is a true story of Phoolan Devi, as told to French journalists Marie-Therese Cuny and Paul Rambali who transcribed the story for her since she was unable to read or write. Phoolan Devi was born into a family of boatmen called Mullahs, who were the lowest caste, in a small village in Ottar Pradesh, India. "The Bandit Queen of India" is unrelenting in showing the grueling life of low-caste girls in India. If written as fiction, one could not believe that all this tragedy, cruelty and degradation could come to one person. Phoolan and her sisters are beaten by their parents, mostly by their mother. Times are so bad that her mother was thankful when twin daughters died after birth. Later, when, yet another girl was born, her mother refused to nurse her and made the rest of the family find food for her. Mothers pray to have boy babies. There never was enough to eat. Their caste was expected to do the worst jobs such as picking lice from others' scalps and not ask for anything in return. Her father told her it was her duty to do these things. Once when doing a menial chore, she saw mangoes and asked for a little piece. The upper-caste man slapped her very hard and said: `How dare you ask me for a mango! Today you want a mango. Tomorrow it will be something else!"

Devi was married at the age of 11 for a dowry of a cow and bicycle to a man in his 30's she had met once. Her father asked his future son-in-law to wait to take the girl until she was older. Instead the husband takes her and beats and rapes her. Ever her new father-in-law, who pretends to help her, betrays her. Later she is able to escape and goes back to her village where she is ostracized because she did not stay with her husband even though she is only 11. Her parents could only protect her for a few years and finally the husband came back and claimed his wife and brandished his fury on her for escaping earlier. If that was not enough, she was also brutally gang-raped by bandits. Later one of the bandits, Vikram, saved her from sure death and fell in love with her. She became the Bandit Queen and Vikram was the Bandit King. They lived like Robin Hood taking from the rich and giving to the poor, sometimes even returning to the poor the same jewelry that had been stolen.

When Vikram was murdered by one of their gang members, Phoolan was able to escape and formed her own gang. She went back to her village and murdered 22 upper-caste men, some of whom were involved in torturing and raping her. There was a great hunt for her, but she was able to evade capture. Later she was able to negotiate a deal with Indira Gandhi who agreed that she would not receive the death penalty. She then turned herself in and spent 11 years in jail. She was released and her case never went to trial. She was well-known and was elected to the Indian Parliament. Her life has come full circle. However, in 2001, on the way to her home from Parliament, she was assassinated, supposedly for retaliation for the murders of the 22 men.

In the Epilogue of "The Bandit Queen of India," Phoolan explains why she wants her story told: "So many times I reached out my hands and nobody helped me. They called me a pest and a criminal. I never consider myself to be someone good, but I wasn't a criminal, either. All I did was make men suffer what they made me suffer. "Now for the first time, a woman from my community has been able to tell the truth about her life and testify in public to the injustice we all had to suffer. It was my hope that my testimonial would give help to others; other women, my sisters who have been humiliated, and my brothers who are being exploited."

"The Bandit Queen of India" focuses on her early life and as she is subjected to more and more indignities, humiliations and degradations, it is not hard to see why she would want to get revenge when she had a chance. The reader does not have to condone the violence and murder in order to understand it. It is a harsh life and it is not hard to see why the legend of the Bandit Queen has endured. It is a true "rags to riches" story except that the riches are the power to effect political change. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the plight of women in India, the cruelties of the caste system and the story of a woman who had nothing and never gave up but was able to fight back. She is truly a modern Robin Hood and as such her legend lives on.

Book received free of charge.