Parini Shroff's splendid The Bandit Queens is a hilarious romp about serious things—as serious as a novel gets, and as funny, too, with characters who are dear and maddening and indelible and gorgeously drawn. Twisty, compulsive, bold, surprising, moving: It's a wonderful book.

In Shroff's acerbic debut, a woman helps other women escape their abusive marriages in their small village in India, often through murder... . Readers are in for a razor-stuffed treat. Siddiqui, Faiz Rahman (26 July 2021). "Uttar Pradesh: District administration stalls unveiling of Phoolan Devi's statue in Unnao". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 18 December 2022 . Retrieved 18 December 2022. Richard Shears and Isobelle Gidley, Devi: The Bandit Queen, Allen & Unwin, 1984. ISBN 0-04-920097-6. The Bandit Queens, by Parini Shroff, is a sort of present-day, Indian (as in India), gender- and caste-based, novel-length version of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." The premise here is straightforward: Geeta, a woman who was abandoned by her abusive husband five years ago and made a pariah as village gossip spread that she had killed him, is now working in a micro-loan collective with four other women, and being asked for tips on how they can kill their abusive husbands. Sounds sobering, and it is.Bandit Queen is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language biographical action-adventure film [3] based on the life of Phoolan Devi as covered in the book India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi by the Indian author Mala Sen. [4] It was written, produced, and directed by Shekhar Kapur and starred Seema Biswas as the title character. The music was composed by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Direction for that year. The film was premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival. [5] [6] The film was selected as the Indian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 67th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. [7] Plot [ edit ] Some terms used by the characters contradict the setting and characterization. There is less probability of them knowing such information.

For some reason, books set in India are pitched to readers in the US as serious and beautiful and deep, there is often a whiff of exoticism. THE BANDIT QUEENS, however, is murderous, raucous fun that also has a keen eye for social commentary. The setting gives us a situation where everyone knows everyone, where every action has a social consequence, where it can be impossible to keep a secret for long. It's perfect for a crime novel. In 1983, Devi surrendered to the Indian government (then under Prime Minister Indira Ghandi) and was accused of 48 criminal offenses. She was imprisoned for 11 years until she was pardoned in 1994 at age 31.Bhatia, Sidharth (18 October 2021). "The amusing, the outrageous and the pensive: Farrukh Dhondy's memoir has it all". The Wire (India). Archived from the original on 20 December 2022 . Retrieved 20 December 2022. Geeta does not have children, which leads to some derision from other characters in the book. What role does motherhood play in the narrative? How does it impact Geeta's decisions? Phoolan Devi, Marie-Thérèse Cuny and Paul Rambali, I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India's Bandit Queen, Little, Brown and Company, 1996. ISBN 0-31-687960-6

On July 25, 2001, Phoolan Devi was assassinated by 3 masked shooters outside of her Delhi home. She was rushed to a hospital but was declared dead. I rate this literary fiction book an easy 4 stars. It is both funny and sad at the same time. The book is about Geeta, a widow in a small village in India. She is rumored to have killed her no good husband, but she knows that he just abandoned her. However, she finally gives up protesting her innocence and decides to let her nebulous reputation work for her. People that are afraid of her patronize her jewelry business. After the massacre, Phoolan Devi remained on the run and was nearly caught by the police on 31 March 1981. [17] :335 Her mother was held for five months in Kalpi prison to pressure Devi to give herself up. [8] In 1983, Phoolan Devi surrendered to the authorities after long negotiations led by Rajendra Chaturvedi, a police officer from Bhind. Dressed in a police uniform and wearing a red bandanna on her head, she bowed before representations of Durga and Gandhi, then prostrated herself in front of Arjun Singh, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, with 8,000 people watching. [10] Phoolan Devi had set conditions regarding her surrender, which included: no death penalty for anyone from her gang; a maximum custodial sentence of eight years; no use of handcuffs; being imprisoned as a group; being imprisoned in Madhya Pradesh and not Uttar Pradesh; her family being given land with space for her goat and cow; and her brother getting a government job. [10] She and seven men, including Man Singh, surrendered. [2] :215 Mala Sen records that the male journalists gathered in Bhind to watch her surrender were unimpressed with her plain appearance. [2] :218 a b c d Moxham, Roy (2010). "Chapter 5". Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and me (Ebooked.). London: Rider. ISBN 978-1-84604-182-2. Sahu, Manish (25 July 2021). "Will install Phoolan Devi statues in 18 districts: Vikassheel Insaan Party". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021 . Retrieved 26 October 2023.India and the village Geeta lives in are intrinsic to the narrative. Discuss the ways in which the setting functions as a character in the novel and how each of the other characters relates to it. Vlessing, Etan (29 April 2019). "Hot Docs: Lisa Ray to voice star in Bandit Queen doc Phoolan (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 29 September 2022 . Retrieved 5 May 2023. Mala Sen". The Daily Telegraph. 30 May 2011. Archived from the original on 21 September 2022 . Retrieved 18 December 2022.

The story is told from the perspective of a woman named Geeta. The other women in the loan group tend to ignore her and treat her like an outcast. She is regarded as a widow and as a childless woman, a failure. Her drunken, abusive husband deserted her five years ago, but according to gossip, people believe she murdered him. She is content with living alone. Unable to convince the others that she did not kill him and dispose of his body, she seizes on their suspicions. The caste system has existed in some form in India for at least 3,000 years. It is a complex social structure wherein social roles like one’s profession and status became “hereditary,” resulting in fixed hierarchies. Were you familiar with India’s caste system before reading The Bandit Queens? In which ways did the pervasive societal structure appear within the novel? Are you familiar with any other caste systems across the globe? How are they like—and how do they differ from—India’s caste system? It was not until years later that I had the thought: But what if they actually did it? Not only that, what if other women wanted in on the action? Geeta is believed to have killed her vanished husband – a rumour she hasn’t bothered trying to correct, because a reputation like that can keep a single woman safe in rural India. But when she’s approached for help in ridding another wife of her abusive drunk of a husband, her reluctant agreement sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all the women in the village….

Phoolan Devin was born to a low-caste household in 1963 in a village on the banks of the sacred Yamuna River in the vast north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Corvus Atlantic’s commercial fiction list which includes women’s, historical, romance, sci-fi, crime and thriller. The kids are a treat to read. I wish the book had more of them instead of social activism. Be it Raees, Arhaan, or Irem, each has a distinct personality and is just as adorable (and funny). Irem deserved more space, given that she is the most likely candidate to take over when the time comes.