“I thought many times to commit suicide, but if I die, so does the thousands of girls every day. The effigy of Ravana who picked up a woman still burns, even today, every year. Many such Ravanas tortured me, I have given them my answer. “ – Phoolan Devi
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi said this thing at least twice, that one who is brave, powerful, can only talk about peace. Once in Ladakh, after a clash of soldiers from China, while addressing the Indian Army and second time on the occasion of the starting of the foundation of Ram temple in Ayodhya.
What does that mean? Will someone who is not powerful will alk about unrest? Or only the powerful can talk about peace so that the same status quo of the power remains. Or can there be differences in talking and action? Lets look at Phoolan Devi life, where we will see who showed valor, and who talked about peace?
Under the cool shade of the Neem tree, on the banks of the Yamuna, Phoolan Devi lived. She was born in Mallah society. How did she become a follower of Buddhism from the worshiper of Durga? Fighting against fake manhood throughout her life, she got shot by bullets in an armbush, by heroes or cowards? And burnt at the ghat of ‘holy’ river Ganga at Mirzapur.
What if it was written that the Chambal river goes from Kota to Kolkata, then through the country of Bangladesh, it joins the Bay of Bengal; and Yamuna and Ganga come from the Himalayas and join Chambal? Who cursed Chambal and sanctified Ganga?
So, let me rephrase, Phoolan Devi, Chambal’s daughter, was born on the banks of the river Chambal in Orai and was burnt in the same Chambal in which the Ganges, Yamuna meet at Etawah and Allahabad, at the ghat of Mirzapur. It seems simple and straight, west to east, and other rivers coming from north to south.
This is the first issue of the series of articles. In the next issue, along with the water and law, governance and rebellion, interviews of those who were connected with Phoolan will also be published. from Mirzapur to Chambal.
Part 1: Introduction
Phoolan Devi was born in Jalon district of Uttar Pradesh state of Bundelkhand on 10 August 1963. Village with red soil. On the banks of the Yamuna was a village named Gurwa ka Purva. This year Vinod Sahni, who is from Gonda, went to Phulan’s village in Jalaun, spent three-four months, and on the occasion of her birthday, his statue was installed by the mother of Phoolan Devi, Moola Devi. Vinod Sahni is one among many youth from Mallah community, who are inspired by struggles from the life of Phoolan Devi and want to keep their community’s history alive.
Phoolan Devi was born on a day of flowers, due to which she was named Phoolan. Her elder sister’s name was Rukmini and younger sister’s name was Ramkali and Munni, and the youngest brother’s name was Shiv Narayan. Her house was of mud and the roof was of puval, wheat husks. There were two rooms for them and one for the cows. There were no windows, doors in the house, and there was no design in the outside door. It was always cold and dark at home for this reason. There were three beds. Two in and one out. Phoolan loved the fragrance of the soil, she used to collect red mud from the river bank and eat it. Cultivation was done from this soil, also plaster of walls. She and her sister used to dry cow dung on the wall with her mother, to cook food. Rukmini was four years older than Phoolan. They had two cows. Phoolan used to take the cow to graze, fetch water from a well and do household chores since she was small. They had to go to the field to urinate, a little far, where they had to pass through their uncle Bihari’s big house. Bihari always used to scold and beat him. Sometimes with hands, sometimes with sticks.
Bihari’s house was made of cement, brick, with a balcony with two floors. And the design of the doors was like of kings. There were wells inside his house so that his wives would not have to go outside, and did not have to wait in line to fill the water.
Phoolan could not understand why were things like this? Her mother and father always used to describe their condition as God’s wish. Phoolan used to think that who is God who did this and will he ever meet us, we will surely ask why Bihari has a two-storey house, a field to grow wheat, mango trees, so many cows and buffaloes? Phoolan was fond of lentils and mangoes but in her house they always had only potatoes. Sometimes Moola Devi would apply ghee on the roti, for this, her father had to work all day in the house of a rich man, sometimes the whole day was spent eating only peas.
During food, father was always given food first and the cook who cooked it was the last, Rukmani at that time. Once Phoolan was called to massage Pradhan and after seeing the mangoes in his house, Phoolan asked for a mango, due to which Pradhan angrily slapped her. Pradhan could not tolerate how a girl could ask him anything. Since childhood, Phoolan was concerned about her beauty and color, because the color of Rukmani was lighter than hers. There was no one like Phoolan in terms of work. Compared to the rest of the girls, she could leap into the tree, run fast, swim in the river, cut grass with wasps, feed animals, lift heavy goods, water from wells on her head from the river. Phoolan used to think that she could do all this because there is anger in her, as there was nothing to eat.
Then when Phoolan had a fourth sister, Phoolan raised her. Because of being a girl, Mula Devi did not take care of her upbringing and there was not much in the house that she could raise another girl, but maybe if she was a boy, the matter would have been different.
Phoolan’s grandfather Man Phule had two brothers. Whose land was 37 acres. Man Phule had two sons, Devidin and Bihari. And his brother’s son i.e. nephew Inderjit. Uncle Bihari and Phoolan’s father were one, but the mothers were different. Bihari had more money because he did not give his share of land and animals to Phoolan’s father. Then whatever his father earned, he worked as a carpenter, in the field, and in the house, all his money went to fight the case in court to claim his land back. He had won the case in Kalpi’s court, but Bihari started fighting in even bigger court in Orai. One had to walk a full day to go there and it was always more money which was needed to give to the lawyer. Throughout the day, her father kept on babbling. Bihari was a mallah but treated himself like Thakurs. Bihari’s friends were also in the panchayat, who advised Devidin that you should save your money for your daughters’ dowry and not for the legal case.
To provide for the dowry, Devidin thought of cutting and selling a very old and thick Neem tree on his land. But Bihari’s son Mayyadin fraudulently took it away. Devidin and Moola Devi were not in the village at that time. When Phoolan came to know, she went to stop him alone. On the way, she caught the nose of the bull and Mayyadin had to beat Phoolan very hard to let go off the bullock cart.
Phoolan Devi was married in only 11 years to Putti Lal who was from Maheshpur village. Phoolan used to complain to her father-in-law that she should be taken back home. But they had locked him in the cow shed. Her husband and father-in-law had said that some work should be done at home, let Phoolan stay here. Her husband was a widower, Putti Lal, who wanted to force a physical relationship with her. It was about 1974, when Putty Lal forcefully brought Phoolan to his village, while Phoolan’s parents wanted him to farewell after Phoolan grew to 14 years. After facing many persecution, torture and marital rape, Phoolan came back to live in her maternal home.
In 1978, Mayadin’s house was robbed, on which he had accused Phoolan. Police kept Phoolan tied to a tree outside the police station for three days. She was exploited by the police for months. She was left to rot in the corner of the prison with garbage, and mice. Many of these cops were friends of Mayyadin. The people of Phoolan’s house gave bail with the help of Thakur Jaykaran Singh, giving 25000 rupees. Thakur was also with cruel intention and wanted to keep Phoolan at home as a slave. Phoolan returned, then Babu Gujjar kidnapped her. Vikram Mallah was in this gang. On the evening of Sawan Dui, Babu Gujjar took her in July, and beat her for 72 hours, and raped her multiple times. On the third day, Vikram Mallah shot Babu Gujjar. Vikram Mallah could not see a woman from her community being mistreated like this. After that, Vikram Mallah and Phoolan Devi fell in love with each other.
About Vikram Mallah, Khushwant Singh says that he had long hair, and loved Phoolan very much. Phoolan was very fond of film songs, and so Vikram brought her radio, cassettes, and recorders. In the folklore of the village, there was one famous one which said if you want to kill, then kill twenty, not one, twenty will make you popular, if you kill one, you will be called gunehgar, killer.
Phoolan also built a rubber stump in Vikram’s love. Phoolan Devi | Queen of rebels | Vikram Mallah’s love (king of rebels)
Phoolan had great faith in God and inner instinct. Before or after the robbery, they would visit the deserted Durga temple. Lala Shri Ram who was in jail during that time, came out and shot Vikram, because Vikram had killed Babu Gujjar, who was from the same caste as Shree Ram. And he brought Phoolan to a ruin of Behmai. This village was a village of Thakurs. Every evening, Thakur used to come to show their fake manhood, and used to rape Phoolan. This sequence lasted for 23 days. 23 days later, Shri Ram got her out of the room and asked Phoolan to fetch water from the community well. He pulled the only blanket from her body, and mocked her and spat on her, the morally naked villagers were watching while all this happening.
Lodhi and Pal rescued Phoolan from there. Phoolan then met a fakkad baba there. Whose name was Tiwari. Fakkad Baba tried to get reconciliation between Phoolan and Shri Ram and also gave a gun to Phoolan. Slowly Phoolan formed her gang with Man Singh.
After 14 months, Phoolan returned. On 14 February 1981 in the village of Behmai. And in the same way, near the same community well which goes towards the river, she recognized all the Thakurs who raped her one by one and she took revenge. She also came to kill Shri Ram but he was not there. Twenty two people were killed. And these people were thakurs, like the chief minister, Vishwanath Pratap Singh. Sensation spread throughout the state. Police could not catch Phoolan. V.P Singh, who was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, had to resign. After this, Thakurs killed many people in Mallah village called Aastha, in the name of revenge. Rajendra Chaturvedi, who was an inspector in Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, talked with Phoolan about surrendering Phoolan for a year at the behest of Indira Gandhi and Arjun Singh and took her in confidence. He knew she can be only won over by human feeling, and therefore, he made his wife and son meet her, to gain trust of Phoolan Devi.
On February 1983, .315 Mauser, on the shoulder, moving at the waist, long dagger inserted into her belt, Phoolan Devi was accompanied by Rajendra Chaturvedi, Inspector of Police, Bhind District, walking to surrender. The police battalion was waiting 6 miles away. Only Arjun Singh was aware of the incident. Phoolan Devi spent four years in dense bushes and now she had cases of kidnapping and murder on her head. With a red band tied on her head, wearing a silver bracelet, .155 rifle and the picture of Durga, in the chest pocket of her new khaki uniform given by police, in front of the picture of Gandhi and Durga Devi, she and her gang put their weapons.
The racist media, whose scale of beauty and justice was different, was not able to swallow that she is 5 feet tall, flat-nosed, for the woman whom they were describing as dasusundari (bandit queen), dangerous, and Robin Hood. They even called her Nepali boy.
Actually the Government of India had surrendered, in front of Phoolan on her terms. Phoolan Devi demanded : No one should be handcuffed, not to exceed the sentence of eight years, they should be kept in good jail, surrender should be in Madhya Pradesh, never be sent to Uttar Pradesh, legal hearing in special court, cousin Mayuddin has acquired the land illegally which should go to her father, a government job for her brother, the family should be settled on government land in Madhya Pradesh with their cow and goat.
After Indira Gandhi’s death in 1984, the other prisoners in the jail were teasing Phoolan that now even your godmother has died, who will save you. Phoolan raised her voice many times against the prison conditions like Bhagat Singh, while in jail and also raised the issue of prisoner’s right and cleanliness of the jail. For this, she also went on hunger strike twice.
While she was in jail, many foreigners used to visit her, including the producers of the film. Mala Sen came here and met her and wrote the autobiography, on which the film Bandit Queen was later made by Shekhar Kapoor. When Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, he brought Rajesh Khanna to Congress and at his behest, Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia also used to visit Phoolan Devi in Gwalior Jail.
The Bofor scam took place and a feud was born between the Gandhi family and the Bachhan family. Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times journalist writes that all this was done by V.P Singh. He did not want to allow Amitabh to grow there due to his rising fame in Allahabad. At this time, the cold War was also going on between Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh. On one side, Lal Krishna Advani was running with the issue of Ram temple, and he fought the election of 1991 in the Delhi Legislative Assembly. Rajiv Gandhi contested Rajesh Khanna on congress ticket to stop Advani’s chariot and settle score with Amitabh too. After which Advani won by 1589 votes but had run away to Gandhinagar. Rajesh Khanna accused L.K Advani of rigging. Kanshi Ram, on the other side, got Phoolan Devi signed the election paper from jail and contested her as an independent candidate, in this seat in which Phoolan Devi got close to 753 votes.
In 1993, Phoolan Devi was shifted to Tihar Jail where Kiran Bedi was posted as inspector general. Kiran Bedi had comforted her by asking her not to panic, and said you have not been heard in the court for so many days, the law cannot do this for a long time, you will be released soon. All the gang members of Phoolan Devi were released from jail within eight years. They went over to Uttar Pradesh and fought case. No witness came against them in the court. Phoolan knew that she would be killed if she went to Uttar Pradesh. Indira Gandhi was dead, who had accepted all her conditions, and Arjun Singh had gone to Punjab. Phoolan said that she did not have the money to afford a lawyer to fight the case. And there were not even the political leaders of her Mallah fraternity, who could speak for her, while the Gujjars, Thakurs and Yadavs in her gang, their community members were in power.
In February 1994, Mulayam Singh Yadav announced the withdrawal of the case in Behmai at Begum Hazrat Mahal Park. Thousands of people fromMallah community were present in this rally. Phoolan Devi then came out of jail and married Umed Singh Kashyap. In 1959, Phoolan and Umed Singh Kashyap accepted Buddhism in Deekshabhoomi. Phoolan Devi’s had a three storey house in Delhi, near Chittaranjan Park. In her house, the picture of Durga, and Buddha, hung on the same wall, with marigold flowers on them. Above the TV she also used to keep picture of Jesus, and a big picture of Babasaheb Ambedkar on a wall. Ramvilas Paswan used to call her sister, and had advised her to convert to Buddhism. She also had Dhamma Vrio, a buddhist monk as an advisor staying in the house with her. She also had a dog named Jackie. Phoolan Devi started wearing gold bangles and earrings.
In 1996, in India politics, everyday a new resignation was happening, and amidst all this there was a rally of Phoolan Devi in the form of ‘Gandhi of Mirzapur’. And she won in May. In 1996, Lalu Prasad Yadav had a big rally with Phoolan Devi at Gandhi Maidan, Patna, in which crowds of millions gathered.
Phoolan Devi’s Lok Sabha speech in Lok Sabha 26 Jul 2000:
Smt Phoolan Devi (Mirzapur): Mr. President, when I take time to meet my District Officer in Mirzapur district and when I go to meet him, he tells his peon that Saheb has left the area. District officials seem to be very big leaders. If I forcefully go inside, he go out of the back door and he says that the Bharatiya Janata Party government will transfer me if I meet you.
The District Magistrate does not do any work as I say. I had earlier raised this matter in the House and requested that I have not been provided with a government vehicle. When I requested him about this, he insulted me and said that you take the official train from the Speaker of Lok Sabha.
Smt Phoolan Devi: When I say about giving money to the department, the district collector says that this department is corrupt. When I was MP of 11th Lok Sabha At that time, once the money of MP fund was given. Our tribal and Banavasi have been neglected for fifty years. They bring water from the forests three to four kilometers away. I put hand pumps in the villages for the first time. The Jal Nigam belong to the mafia gang. I had no such knowledge about them before. I gave them money. The officials and contractors of Jal Nigam took two thousand rupees and put hand pumps in the houses of those who had buffalo and goats here. The people I recommended to install hand pumps here, still did not have hand pumps. Day before yesterday the District Magistrate told me that whether you are Member of Parliament or not I do not care. Do not order us, the department to whom I will give money, that department will get the work done.
The poor people who vote for us, should be provided water, electricity but it is going to big mafia people. I request that such corrupt officials be punished. Why do they shy away from meeting and run away from me? Apart from this, the MPs fund of 1999 and 2000 L.A.D. Money has stopped in Delhi. The District Magistrate is not sending the project. He does not meet us and speaks the wrong words. I request that such a District Magistrate be punished …
Phoolan Devi was raising the local issues of Mirzapur equally. She was not allowed to work. BJP government at centre and state was making her life difficult in every possible way.
In 2001, Phoolan Devi was shot and killed in Delhi. At this time, the Delhi Police Commissioner was Ajay Raj Sharma. Today he is retired IPS Officer, Ajay Raj Sharma. He was posted in Chambal area in 1970. At that time, the gang of Phoola and Jhuri were active there. Recently, he commented on The Wire Media Channel, in an interview with Karan Thapar, that if he had been Delhi’s police commissioner, he would have arrested Anurag Thakur and Kapil Mishra. He gave an example during Mulayam Singh Yadav’s tenure when he filed an FIR against the cabinet minister. He hails from Mirzapur. And in his first posting near Chambal, according to him, he avenged the murder of his fellow Subardar by killing the Jhuri Gang. He later killed Prakash Shukla in the encounter who was from Gorakhpur, who was given a supari to kill Kalyan Singh. He started STF, Special Task Force, in U.P. during the same time. Later he was the Commissioner of Delhi where he handled Hansi Cronje corruption case, Parliament attack case, 2001 murder of Phoolan Devi case. He wrote the book Beating the Bullet this year on 2020, describing his journey as a police officer.
Today Kafeel Khan comes out of jail saying that I am thankful to Uttar Pradesh S.T.F that they did not encounter me like Vikas Dubey, while coming from Mumbai. In Uttar Pradesh, Ajay Raj Sharma was the one who had sown the seeds of the police thoko, encounter policy. Openly in media he claims that most of the encounters of Police are contract killing.
Sher Singh Rana was arrested after Ajay Raj Sharma’s investigation and he also escaped from Tihar Jail in 2004. After, he was also caught back in Kolkata in 2006. He says that during this time he has brought the ashes of Prithvi Raj Chauhan from Kandahar, Afghanistan, who according to him was the last Hindu king of India. He has also put a video of this, of him going to Kandahar. The Kshatriya society gave him a lot of respect. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment but he is out of jail on Bail. And even Munni Devi, Phoolan Devi’s younger sister, is seen standing with him supporting him. You may have heard BJP sopkesperson Sambit Patra on television, calling traitor, Jaichand, and whose daughter Chauhan Saheb had taken. Now, in the next issue, we will check these facts from the history. At present Phoolan Devi’s elder sister Rukmani is in Samajwadi Party, younger sister with Sher Singh Rana, younger brother is doing police job in Gwalior, and mother is spending her last time in the village.
But why this year Samajwadi Party President, Akhilesh Yadav tweeted the video of Phoolan Devi on her death anniversary and Congress state president Ajay Lallu too wrote about her. Is it because the population and vote of the Mallah society is very important in the politics of Uttar Pradesh and in the politics of India? Or they truly valued the struggle faced by Phoolan Devi? Munni Devi, Phoolan Devi’s younger sister, she has been accusing Umed Singh Kashyap Phoolan Devi’s husband of murdering her since 2001 and also while standing with Sher Singh Rana. Umed Singh Kashyap had fought elections on the ticket given by Congress and Bhaujan Samaj Party. After her death he claimed, he will make a trust to complete Phoolan’s dream. Just before the death of Phoolan Devi, Phoolan devi wanted to make a will of her property, as she found out that Umed Singh is already married and have two daughters. Kamini Jaiswal, Phoolan Devi’s lawyer says that the main beneficiary of Phoolan Devi’s death is no doubt Umed Singh.
All parties are silent on her murder. If Phoolan Singh was a Rajput, perhaps Goswami saheb would have spoken by saying what India wants to know on Republic India. The fact is that Phoolan’s gang members used to call her Phoolan Singh. Because of her bravery and masculine nature. It is not same to be a lion, to be a Kshatriya, or to be a king and to be brave. Killing someone with arrows from the back of a tree or hiding and shooting someone from Maruti cannot be a sign of valor in mythology and in reality..
Amitabh Bachchan (Srivastava) should have said something, after all, his company Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited had earned a lot by money in releasing and marketing Bandit Queen movie in 1996. The judge who had given parole to Phoolan Devi, his son Santosh from, told that Phoolan Devi did not consider Amitabh Bachchan as a good man, as his company took lot of profit from her movie.
And Indira Gandhi’s grandson and granddaughter does not respect her words? When the Government of India surrendered before Phoolan Devi in 1983, then Indira Gandhi and Arjun Singh had accepted all the conditions. Will they raise their voice on getting the justice on her murder case?
It is the same situation after fifty years. If workers are going 1000 kilometers away from Bolangir, Odisha today to Chennai, to save for buying motorcycle for their sisters’ marriage dowry, then damn it, on such anti-dowry law and the Supreme Court ruling in 2020, on property’s right of women. It is very important to implement this showy law and put it into practice.
Today, a Phoolan is not alive, but many Phoolan Devi have been born. Providing justice to them is equivalent to providing justice to every woman, who is sold till date in the name of dowry, and does not get property’s rights on her own land. To get Phoolan justice, is to rectify the biggest mistake in India history, when the Congress did not listen to Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar in 1950, on Hindu Code Amendment Bill, and he had to resign. In this bill, he talked about equal rights for women on property.
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