From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography

From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography Phoolan Devi (10.08.1963–25.07.2001), the famous Bandit Queen still appears in stories about famous Indian women. However, while in India, mainly among poor villagers,...

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Autor principal:	Tatiana Szurlej
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing 2018
Materias:	Phoolan Devi’s autobiography manipulation justification violence sexual abuse Indo-Iranian languages and literature PK1-9601 Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania PL1-8844
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/025683ecd6734d97907c9738af555430
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:025683ecd6734d97907c9738af5554302021-11-27T12:54:15ZFrom Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography10.12797/CIS.20.2018.02.121732-09172449-8696https://doaj.org/article/025683ecd6734d97907c9738af5554302018-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.akademicka.pl/cis/article/view/389https://doaj.org/toc/1732-0917https://doaj.org/toc/2449-8696 From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography Phoolan Devi (10.08.1963–25.07.2001), the famous Bandit Queen still appears in stories about famous Indian women. However, while in India, mainly among poor villagers, she is usually described as a heroic defender of the poorest, in the West Phoolan is seen primarily as another victim of Indian patriarchal culture. Moreover, although most of books about Phoolan are based on interviews with her, every version of her biography differs from one another, which raises the question whether these differences are the consequence of a conscious manipulation of a person who tries to justify certain dark aspects of her life, since the famous dacoit owes her fame to her bloody act of revenge on Thakurs in the Behmai village, which was the biggest crime committed by bandits in India until then. The most popular story about Phoolan’s life is the film Bandit Queen made in 1994 by Shekhar Kapur, based on the book India’s Bandit Queen. The True Story of Phoolan Devi by Mala Sen, who is also the author of the screenplay. The autobiography of Phoolan Devi, who tried to stop the release of the Bandit Queen, claiming that it shows a false story, was written in response to those two works. By constructing her image in the autobiography, Phoolan Devi tries to appear as a very strong woman who could achieve a lot, in spite of adverse conditions. Yet it is hard to resist the impression that the autobiography of Phoolan Devi, despite of its very realistic elements, is to some extent a false testimony. The question remains whether it was the publisher, who decided to construct the story this way to satisfy the tastes of the Western readers and respond to their needs, just like the movie of Shekhar Kapur, or maybe Phoolan, deliberately or unknowingly, presented herself as a victim in search of sympathy after the massacre in Behmai. Tatiana SzurlejKsiegarnia Akademicka PublishingarticlePhoolan Devi’s autobiographymanipulationjustificationviolencesexual abuseIndo-Iranian languages and literaturePK1-9601Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, OceaniaPL1-8844ENCracow Indological Studies, Vol 20, Iss 2 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Phoolan Devi’s autobiography manipulation justification violence sexual abuse Indo-Iranian languages and literature PK1-9601 Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania PL1-8844
spellingShingle	Phoolan Devi’s autobiography manipulation justification violence sexual abuse Indo-Iranian languages and literature PK1-9601 Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania PL1-8844 Tatiana Szurlej From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography
description	From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography Phoolan Devi (10.08.1963–25.07.2001), the famous Bandit Queen still appears in stories about famous Indian women. However, while in India, mainly among poor villagers, she is usually described as a heroic defender of the poorest, in the West Phoolan is seen primarily as another victim of Indian patriarchal culture. Moreover, although most of books about Phoolan are based on interviews with her, every version of her biography differs from one another, which raises the question whether these differences are the consequence of a conscious manipulation of a person who tries to justify certain dark aspects of her life, since the famous dacoit owes her fame to her bloody act of revenge on Thakurs in the Behmai village, which was the biggest crime committed by bandits in India until then. The most popular story about Phoolan’s life is the film Bandit Queen made in 1994 by Shekhar Kapur, based on the book India’s Bandit Queen. The True Story of Phoolan Devi by Mala Sen, who is also the author of the screenplay. The autobiography of Phoolan Devi, who tried to stop the release of the Bandit Queen, claiming that it shows a false story, was written in response to those two works. By constructing her image in the autobiography, Phoolan Devi tries to appear as a very strong woman who could achieve a lot, in spite of adverse conditions. Yet it is hard to resist the impression that the autobiography of Phoolan Devi, despite of its very realistic elements, is to some extent a false testimony. The question remains whether it was the publisher, who decided to construct the story this way to satisfy the tastes of the Western readers and respond to their needs, just like the movie of Shekhar Kapur, or maybe Phoolan, deliberately or unknowingly, presented herself as a victim in search of sympathy after the massacre in Behmai.
format	article
author	Tatiana Szurlej
author_facet	Tatiana Szurlej
author_sort	Tatiana Szurlej
title	From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography
title_short	From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography
title_full	From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography
title_fullStr	From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography
title_full_unstemmed	From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography
title_sort	from heroic durga to the next victim of an oppressive patriarchal indian culture: too many variants of phoolan devi’s biography
publisher	Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/025683ecd6734d97907c9738af555430
work_keys_str_mv	AT tatianaszurlej fromheroicdurgatothenextvictimofanoppressivepatriarchalindianculturetoomanyvariantsofphoolandevisbiography
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From Heroic Durga to the Next Victim of an Oppressive Patriarchal Indian Culture: Too Many Variants of Phoolan Devi’s Biography

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