Editing Phoolan Devi (section)

==Early life==

Phoolan Devi was born on 10 August 1963, in the village of Gorha Ka Purwa in [[Jalaun district]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], India.{{efn-ua|Names vary between texts, such as: Gorha Ka Purwa and Gorhapurwa; Vikram and Vickram; Putti Lal and Puttilal.<ref name="Szurlej" />}}<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|42}}<ref name="CNBCTV">{{Cite web |date=10 August 2022 |title=Phoolan Devi birth anniversary: An exceptional journey of the Bandit Queen |url=https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/phoolan-devi-birth-anniversary-an-exceptional-journey-of-the-bandit-queen-14420282.htm |access-date=28 November 2022 |website=CNBC TV18 |language=en |archive-date=28 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128005942/https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/phoolan-devi-birth-anniversary-an-exceptional-journey-of-the-bandit-queen-14420282.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The land is crossed by the [[Yamuna]] and [[Chambal River|Chambal]] rivers and is filled with gorges and ravines, making it suitable terrain for [[dacoity|dacoits]] (bandits).<ref name="Insurgents">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzzBvVpXXJsC |title=Insurgents, raiders, and bandits |first=John |last=Arquilla |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham, Maryland, US |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-56663-832-6 |access-date=3 December 2021 |archive-date=12 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112023509/https://books.google.com/books?id=XzzBvVpXXJsC |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|244}} Her family was poor and from the [[Mallaah|Mallah]] subcaste, which lies towards the bottom of the [[Hindu]] [[caste system in India]], with Mallahs being [[Shudra|Shudras]] who traditionally work as fishermen.{{efn-ua|Indian society is divided into four [[Varna (Hinduism)|castes]] or social classes. From top to bottom these are: [[Brahmin]] (priests), [[Kshatriya]] (warriors), [[Vaishya]] (traders) and [[Shudra]] (labourers).<ref name="Peacock">{{cite book |last1=Peacock |first1=J. Sunita |editor1-last=Dong |editor1-first=Lan |title=Transnationalism and the Asian American heroine: Essays on literature, film, myth and media |date=10 January 2014 |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, North Carolina, US |isbn=978-0-7864-6208-7 |pages=187–195 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A786X6Zyz3cC |language=en |chapter=Phoolan Devi: The primordial tradition of the Bandit Queen}}</ref>{{rp|194}} Underneath these four classes are the [[Dalit]]s, also known as the untouchables.<ref name="Rathod">{{cite book |last1=Rathod |first1=Bharat |title=Dalit academic journeys: Stories of caste, exclusion and assertion in Indian higher education |publisher=Routledge |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-1-003-22482-2 |edition=Ebook |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003224822-1/introduction-bharat-rathod |language=en |chapter=Introduction |year=2022 |pages=1–31 |doi=10.4324/9781003224822-1 |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=21 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221161852/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003224822-1/introduction-bharat-rathod |url-status=live }}</ref>}}<ref name="Sen">{{cite book |last1=Sen |first1=Mala |title=India's Bandit Queen: The true story of Phoolan Devi |date=1995 |publisher=Pandora |location=London |isbn=978-0-04-440888-8 |orig-year=1991}}</ref>{{rp|57}}<ref name="Telegraph-obit" /> Phoolan Devi and her sisters made [[dung cakes]] to burn as fuel, as is common practice in the region; her family grew [[chickpeas]], sunflowers and [[pearl millet]].<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|32–34,57}}<ref name="Moxham-Chapter5">{{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 5 |edition=Ebook}}</ref><ref name="Dung-work">{{cite journal |last1=Jeffery |first1=Roger |last2=Jeffery |first2=Patricia |last3=Lyon |first3=Andrew |title=Taking dung-work seriously: Women's work and rural development in north India |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=1989 |volume=24 |issue=17 |pages=32–37 |jstor=4394731 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4394731 |issn=0012-9976 |access-date=18 October 2023 |archive-date=19 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231019032531/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4394731 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:(A)_cow_dung_cooking_fuel_cakes_being_produced_at_Chunar,_Uttar_Pradesh_India.jpg|The production of [[dung cakes]] in [[Uttar Pradesh]]; dung cakes are a common fuel source in the region.<ref name="Dung-work" />|alt=Hand-made parcels of manure laid outside in the sun to dry|thumb|right]]
Phoolan Devi's mother was called Moola and her father Devidin; she had four sisters and one brother. Devidin had one brother, Biharilal, who had a son called Maiyadin. Biharilal and Maiyadin stole land from Phoolan Devi's father by bribing the village leader to change the land records. Her family was compelled to live in a small house on the edge of the village; the uncle and his son continued to harass the family and steal their crops, aiming to drive them away from the village.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|31}} At the age of 10, Phoolan Devi decided to protest against the injustice. With her older sister Rukhmini, she sat in the disputed land and ate the chickpeas growing there, saying the crop belonged to her family. Maiyadin ordered her to leave and when she did not, he beat her into unconsciousness; the village leader then decreed that her parents should also be beaten.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|32–35}}<ref name="Atlantic">{{cite news |last1=Weaver |first1=Mary Anne |title=India's Bandit Queen |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/11/indias-bandit-queen/304890/ |access-date=20 December 2022 |work=The Atlantic |date=1 November 1996 |language=en |archive-date=17 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221217183437/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/11/indias-bandit-queen/304890/ |url-status=live |url-access= subscription}}</ref> In 2018, Phoolan Devi's mother told ''[[The Asian Age]]'' that she was still fighting to regain the land which Maiyadin had stolen from the family.<ref name="AA-18">{{cite news |last1=Verma |first1=Amita |title=Fight for Phoolan's political legacy |url=https://www.asianage.com/india/all-india/140718/fight-for-phoolans-political-legacy.html |access-date=20 December 2022 |work=The Asian Age |date=14 July 2018 |archive-date=20 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221220170541/https://www.asianage.com/india/all-india/140718/fight-for-phoolans-political-legacy.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following these events, Phoolan Devi's parents decided to [[arranged marriage|arrange a marriage]] for her. She was married to a man called Puttilal, who offered 100 [[Indian rupees]] (equivalent to [[₹]]400 or £4.20 in 2023), a cow and a bicycle to her parents. According to the version related by her to her biographer [[Mala Sen]], it was agreed that Phoolan Devi would start living with him after three years, but Puttilal came back within three months and took her away.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|44–45}} He was three times her age; she refused his sexual advances and fell sick. When her parents came and collected her, they took her to a doctor who diagnosed [[measles]].<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|45–46}}<ref name="BBC-Champion">{{cite news  |last1=Lawson |first1=Alastair   |title=Phoolan Devi: Champion of the poor |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1456441.stm |access-date=18 December 2022 |work=BBC News |date=25 July 2001 |archive-date=25 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925043607/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1456441.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> For a wife to leave her husband was scandalous; preying on Phoolan Devi's parents' fears of disgrace, Maiyadin offered to ensure that Puttilal took her back if they signed a document. The family was illiterate and the parents were warned that it contained a clause giving Maiyadin legal rights to their land, so they refused to sign. Phoolan Devi was sent to stay with a distant relative in the village of Teoga, where she met her recently married cousin Kailash, who ran errands for dacoits (also known locally as bahghis). They became close and had an affair, which resulted in Phoolan Devi being ordered by Kailash's wife to go back to her own village.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|46–48}}<ref name="Atlantic" /><ref name="RK">{{cite web |last1=Snyder |first1=Michael |title=The life and legend of India's Bandit Queen |url=https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2017/indias-bandit-queen/ |website=Roads & Kingdoms |access-date=18 December 2022 |date=13 November 2017 |archive-date=18 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218033142/https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2017/indias-bandit-queen/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Once Phoolan Devi was back in Gorha Ka Purwa, the second son of the village leader became infatuated with her and when she did not reciprocate his affections, he attacked her.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|49,51}} Again, Phoolan Devi needed to leave the village and Maiyadin pressured the family to ask Puttilal to take her back, which he did. In the meantime, Puttilal had taken another wife who often mistreated Phoolan Devi. After several years, Puttilal abandoned Phoolan Devi beside the Yamuna River and she again returned to the parental home.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|52–53}} In January 1979, Maiyadin destroyed the family's crops and began to chop down a [[neem]] tree on their land. When Phoolan Devi threw stones at him and wounded his face, she was arrested by the local police and detained for one month.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|60–61}} She later told ''[[The Atlantic]]'' that she was arrested because Maiyadin accused her of robbing him.<ref name="Atlantic" /> Mala Sen asked her if she had been raped at the police station and Phoolan Devi replied: "They had plenty of fun at my expense and beat the hell out of me too."<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|60–61}}<ref name="Telegraph-Sen-Obit">{{cite news |title=Mala Sen |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/8546445/Mala-Sen.html |access-date=18 December 2022 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=30 May 2011 |archive-date=21 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921203614/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/8546445/Mala-Sen.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Sen notes that it is common for victims of [[sexual assault]] to avoid or repress talking about what happened to them. Sen also observes that from the mid-1970s onwards, Indian feminist groups recorded many instances of women being attacked and murdered by men.<ref name="Sen" />{{rp|55, 61}}<ref name="Atlantic" /> The director of the ''[[Women's Feature Service]]'' commented regarding the case of Phoolan Devi that "quite often rape is used as a method of control and punishment to keep women in their place".<ref name="Lahksmanan">{{cite news |last1=Lahksmanan |first1=Indira A. R. |title=Feminist Robin Hood faced with another fight |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/137800826/?clipping_id=126298171 |access-date=13 June 2023 |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |date=13 August 1997 |page=3A |language=en |url-status=live |archive-date=11 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231111130340/https://www.newspapers.com/image/137800826/?clipping_id=126298171 }}</ref>