Editing Phoolan Devi (section)

===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 |url-access=subscription }}</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 |url-access=subscription }}</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}}