Phoolan Devi free essay sample

Phoolan Devi the Bandit Queen of India By Anthony Bruno Another St. Valentines Day Massacre On February 14, 1981, 18-year-old Phoolan Devi had only one thing on her mind: revenge. Waiting outside the remote village of Behmai on the Yamuna River in northern India, a band of about 20 dacoits (bandits) waited for her instructions. The dacoits were from three different gangs, but their goal was the same: to hunt down the treacherous Ram brothers, Sri Ram Singh and Lala Ram Singh. Sri Ram was a vicious gang leader who had spent time in prison. He was the focus of Phoolan Devi’s lust for justice because he had murdered her lover, Vikram Mallah, as she slept by his side. Phoolan Devi wearing bandit gear Slight in build but strong and agile, Phoolan wore a military-style khaki jacket, denim jeans, and zippered boots. Her dark, straight hair was cut short, ending at her neck. We will write a custom essay sample on Phoolan Devi or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By some accounts, she was wearing lipstick and red nail polish. A wide red bandana—the symbol of vengeance— was tied around her head, covering her hairline and brows. She carried a Sten rifle and a bandolier across her chest. While she mourned for her lover, she did not want to be treated as a woman. She wanted her comrades to think of her as a man because she wanted the kind of revenge only a man could achieve in India’s caste-bound society. She had told them to call her â€Å"Phool,† the masculine version of her given name. She and her band of dacoits had spent the night in the nearby hamlet of Ingwi. As morning broke, Phoolan, her close lieutenant Man Singh, and Baba Mustakim, a fellow dacoit leader, planned their attack on Behmai. Most of Behmai’s population was thakurs, the land-owning caste and the second highest in the Indian system. Sri Ram was a thakur, and though he had once been allied with Phoolan and Vikram, he had always looked down upon them because they were mullahs, the fishermen’s’ caste and one of the lowest. Though just a teenager, Phoolan Devi had been victimized by the caste system her entire life, treated as either a servant or a sex object. Because she was so outspoken in her objections to the men who oppressed her, she had been frequently beaten, bound, imprisoned, and raped. A dacoit gang had kidnapped her from her village, but she soon became one of them, showing that she could be as ruthless and bloodthirsty as any man. But unlike the other bandits who infested the northern states of India, Phoolan Devi did not steal for her own enrichment. Like Robin Hood, she stole from the rich and gave to the poor, particularly poor women. Her inspirations were the Durga, the Hindu goddess of shakti, strength and power, and Mohandas K. Gandhi, the Indian statesman and humanitarian who had fought for equality among all people. Dacoit gangs have a long history of preying on travelers and looting villages in the northern states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which borders on Nepal. The region is characterized by its wild and rugged landscapes—mountains, maze-like ravines, desolate valleys, and uncharted jungles. To this day, buses travel in armed caravans to fight off likely raids. Some believe that the bandits who thrive in these states have been driven to criminality by extreme poverty and the inability to overcome the strictures of the caste system. Others believe that they are just the dregs of society, criminals by nature that, like the Mafia, has learned the benefits of organization. But Phoolan Devi was unique. She was an idealist who sought to right the wrongs of society. She was also a passionate woman who had never known love or respect until she met Vikram Mallah. She swore never to rest until she avenged his murder. Now, after months of searching for Sri Lam, she had finally found him. One of her men had learned that he was hiding out in Behmai, and she was determined to capture him there. She and the other bandit leaders decided to split their force into three units. One would take the direct path to the village and attack head-on while the other two would lie in wait on the flanks. When the villagers fled from the frontal attack, the flanking units would intercept them and isolate the Ram brothers. Sri Ram, after all, would not be hard to spot, Phoolan reasoned. He had distinctive red hair, a red beard, and bloodshot red eyes. To her he was the devil incarnate. The Neem Tree Phoolan Devis father Devidin Phoolan Devi was born in the village of Gorha Ka Purwa in Uttar Pradesh, the second child in a family of four sisters and a younger brother. Her father, Devidin, worked as a sharecropper and was considered cursed for having had so many daughters. Although they were very poor, Phoolan’s family was not the poorest in the village because her father owned about an acre of land and the huge Neem tree that grew on it. A Neem tree In her autobiography, I, Phoolan Devi, she recalls that the Neem tree’s trunk was so large, she and two of her sisters together could barely encircle it with their arms. The valuable timber that could be derived from the tree was, in effect, the family’s nest egg. Phoolan came to love that tree for its beauty and majesty and would often rest under its shade. Phoolans cousin Mayadin Her father should have been richer, but his crafty older brother Bihari had seized his inheritance of 15 acres with the empty promise that he would care for Devidin and his family. When Bihari died, his estate was left to his oldest son, Phoolan’s cousin Mayadin. Though just a child at the time, Phoolan distrusted Mayadin. â€Å"He had the face of a lizard: a flat nose with big wide nostrils and lying eyes,† she wrote. After his father’s funeral, Mayadin went to his uncle Devidin and told him that he was now the elder of the family and would be accorded all the respect that position deserved. But it wasn’t long before Mayadin showed his true colors. While Phoolan’s parents were away for a night, Mayadin sent a crew of workers to cut down Devidin’s prized Neem tree and sell the wood, taking the proceeds for himself. When Devidin returned to find his tree gone, he did not protest. After living so many years under his brother’s subjugation, he knew the futility of trying to fight back. Phoolan was stunned and appalled by her father’s passivity. In Indian society, a woman would never dare challenge a man, no matter how offensive his behavior, but Phoolan Devi was fearless, headstrong, and provocative. Though only ten years old, she already had a reputation for promiscuity and was known to bathe naked in the river in broad daylight, unconcerned with who might be watching. She confronted her cousin and demanded that he compensate her father for the Neem tree. He tried to ignore her, but she taunted him in public, called him a thief, and staged a sit-in on his land with her older sister. Mayadin finally lost his patience and struck the impertinent girl with a brick, knocking her out cold. The beating did not silence her. She continued to harangue Mayadin, demanding justice. To get rid of the little nuisance, Mayadin arranged to have her married to a man named Putti Lal who lived several hundred miles away. Putti Lal was in his thirties; Phoolan was eleven. Her reputation for promiscuity was totally unfounded, and after she was married, she had no idea what was expected of a wife. Fearing his â€Å"snake,† as she called his penis, she refused to have sex with him. Since he already had another wife, he accepted Phoolan’s refusal and relegated her to household labor. She was so miserable she ran away from her husband’s house and walked home. When she arrived in her village, her family was horrified. A wife simply did not abandon her husband, they believed. It was unheard of. Phoolan’s mother, Moola, was so ashamed, she told her daughter to go to the well and jump in to kill herself. Phoolan was so confused and distraught she contemplated it. In time, Phoolan recovered her sense of self and rejected her family’s condemnations. She continued to challenge Mayadin, taking him to court for unlawfully holding land that should have been her father’s. In court she seldom contained her emotions, and her dramatic outbursts often left the courtroom stunned. In 1979 Mayadin accused Phoolan of stealing from his house. She denied the accusation, but the police arrested her anyway. While in custody, she was beaten and raped repeatedly, then left to rot in a rat-infested cell. She knew that her cousin was behind this injustice. The experience broke her body but ignited her hatred for men who routinely denigrated women. In July of that year a gang of dacoits led by a notorious bandit leader named Babu Gujar set up camp outside Phoolan’s village. The people of the village naturally feared for their lives and their property. Babu Gujar was apparently told of Phoolan Devi’s stubborn impertinence because he sent her a letter in which he threatened to kidnap her or cut off her nose, a traditional punishment for women who got out of line. What happened next is the matter of some debate. Phoolan herself has given conflicting accounts of the event. The dacoits took her from her village and brought her into the rugged ravines. As Mary Anne Weaver writes in her article â€Å"India’s Bandit Queen,† â€Å"Perhaps she had indeed been kidnapped. Perhaps Mayadin had paid the dacoits to take her away. Perhaps she was trying to protect her young brother, whom she adored. Or perhaps she simply walked away † She was brought to Babu Gujar who â€Å"brutalized† her for seventy-two hours. Gujar’s lieutenant, Vikram Mallah, could no longer stand the young girl’s torment, so he shot and killed the dacoit leader. Tall and unusually thin with a pale complexion and long black hair, Vikram Mallah admired Phoolan since he first set eyes on her. In her autobiography she recounts her feelings about her rescuer: â€Å"I felt strange—happy but still frightened. A man had touched me softly, he had stroked my hair and touched my cheeks I felt I could trust him, something I had never felt about a stranger or a man before. Gradually I stopped sobbing, and my tears dried. If I stayed with him, perhaps I would be happy: no more beatings, no more pain, no more humiliation. † Bonnie Clyde Vikram took over as leader of the gang, and he and Phoolan became lovers. The killing of Babu Gujar was considered shocking because Vikram belonged to a lower caste than Gujar. It wasn’t long before Vikram and Phoolan were as notorious as Bonnie and Clyde. According to Weaver, Phoolan was so enthralled with her new life with Vikram, she had a rubber stamp made that she used on all her letters. It identified her as â€Å"Phoolan Devi, dacoit beauty; beloved of Vikram Mallah, Emperor of Dacoits. † Back from Heaven Vikram was Phoolan’s mentor in the ways of the dacoits. She learned how to use a rifle and started carrying one wherever she went. She dressed in the khaki, pseudo-police uniform that the bandits favored, and for once in her life, her bold and fearless behavior was valued as Vikram showed her how to kill, steal, and kidnap for profit. Traveling an 8,000 square-mile area of jungles, ravines, and sandy ridges, their gang raided upper-caste villages and looted trains and bus convoys. Statue of the goddess Durga Phoolan, however, was not in it solely for the money. She saw banditry as a way to correct social inequality by toppling the oppressors and redistributing their wealth. Like a pair of later-day Robin Hoods, she and Vikram gave away much of their ill-gotten gains to the poor. She was motivated by the spirit of the goddess Durga, and before and after every raid she would find a temple and pray to Durga for strength and success. Their life together was a romantic dream filled with adventure, derring-do and tender intimacy, not unlike the extravagant, popular, Indian films Phoolan came to love. Vikram took her to her first movie, and she instantly became enraptured with the spectacle and splendor—as well as the bombast—of â€Å"Bollywood† cinema. Vikram bought her a cassette recorder, and she cherished listening to the soundtracks from her favorite films. But like Bonnie and Clyde their run didn’t last forever. While the law finally ambushed the American bank-robber couple, Phoolan and Vikram were undone by one of their own. Vikram’s â€Å"guru† in crime was Sri Ram, an older bandit who had run with Babu Gujar until his arrest. Vikram had spent time in prison with Sri Ram and was an eager pupil. Vikram’s sentence was shorter than Sri Ram’s, so when he got out, he scraped together 80,000 rupees to bail out Sri and his brother Lala Ram. After Sri was released, Vikram invited him to join his gang, telling his men that Sri would now be their leader. But many of Vikram’s bandits were leery of the change in administration. Sri Ram was a high-caste thakur while most of them were from lower castes. Suspicion and mistrust were inevitable, and Phoolan shared these feelings. Though the gang stayed together, they split into two factions: Vikram’s men and Sri Ram’s men. Some time after Sri Ram’s return, Phoolan and Vikram were invited to a wedding in a remote village. The poor frequently invited them to wedding ceremonies, and Phoolan would often give money to impoverished parents who did not have proper dowries. On this occasion, Phoolan, Vikram, and their men were preparing to hike to the village. At the last minute the Ram brothers and their men decided to join them. They set off after dark, marching by torch light. Along the way they stopped at the edge of field where a man was selling melons. As Vikram was taking his first bite of melon, Phoolan heard two gunshots nearby. She looked to Vikram, but he had dropped his melon and had collapsed to the ground. He had been shot twice in the back. Phoolan suddenly realized that Sri Ram was not with the pack. He had fallen back and was still in the field. Though she didn’t actually see it, Phoolan had no doubt that he was the one who had shot her lover. She ran to Vikram. There was blood bubbling out of his back, his clothes were burnt, and there was a stink of sulfur,† Phoolan says in her autobiography. But despite the severity of his wounds, Vikram never lost consciousness. Phoolan tied a cloth around his torso to staunch the bleeding. He was taken to a doctor who, after examining him, declared that it would be too risky to remove a bullet which had lodged next to his spine. The doctor di d what he could, but he doubted that Vikram would survive. Rumors spread through the region that Vikram had already died, and for the moment police efforts to locate him were suspended. She didn’t want to put him in jeopardy, but she desperately missed lying by his side, so she agreed to spend the night. Gentle rains pelted the canvas of their tent and lulled the weary lovers to sleep. Sometime later Phoolan was roused from a deep sleep by the â€Å"deafening explosion† of gunfire. â€Å"My head was spinning as though I had been drugged,† she wrote of the incident. She reached for her gun, but she was groggy and lethargic. Vikram whispered to her, â€Å"Phoolan. It’s him. The bastard shot me † She looked up and saw the shadowy figure of Sri Ram holding a gun. Phoolan was confused and disoriented. She smelled something that made her nauseous. Then she realized what it was, chloroform, which the gang kept on hand for kidnappings. She later learned that Sri Ram and his men had chloroformed Vikram and his contingent to prevent retaliation. Sri Ram and two of his men picked her up and hauled her out of the tent. She tried to fight back as best she could, but Sri Ram clubbed her with his rifle butt, knocking her to the ground. She was stripped naked and tied up. They carried her to the river and tossed her into a rowboat. As the boat pushed off the shore, she could see Sri Ram’s face looming over her. Why didn’t you kill me, too? † she asked â€Å"Oh, you can still be a great deal of use,† he said with a smirk. She could hear the oars cutting through the water and feel the rain on her body. She tried to fight the effects of the chloroform, but she couldn’t make sense of what was happening to her. Where are they taking me? she wondered. What is the red-eyed devil going to do to me? They Passed Me from Man to Man. They arrived at a village on the river, and Phoolan Devi’s humiliation continued. Still naked, she was taken to the center of the village where Sri Ram publicly declared that she had killed her lover Vikram. He incited the men of the village, many of them thakurs like himself, demanding that she be punished. He was the first to rape her. After he was finished with her, he offered her to everyone else. â€Å"They passed me from man to man,† she wrote in I, Phoolan Devi. They beat her and cursed her. In the days that followed, Sri Ram took her to other villages, Phoolan couldn’t remember how many. â€Å"I was paraded in front of the villagers. Each time, Sri Ram called me a mallah whore. He said I was the one who killed Vikram and, hurling me to the ground, told the villagers to use me as they pleased. Phoolan Devi after three weeks of torture This torture went on for more than three weeks. Throughout the ordeal she prayed to Durga for strength and liberation, all the while wondering how and when this could possibly end. On the twenty-third day, she found herself in the thakur village of Behmai where Sri Ram led her around on a leash like a dog. She was bruised and filthy fr om head to foot. Sri Ram dragged her listless body to the center of the village where a group of thakur men had gathered and demanded that she fetch him fresh water from the well. When she refused, he beat her mercilessly, tearing off her only garment, a blanket, and kicking her over and over again. Finally, to stop the onslaught, she got up and limped to the well to do as he asked as the thakurs mocked her and spat on her. That night an old Brahmin came to her rescue, quietly releasing her from the shed where she was kept and sneaking her out of Behmai in a bullock cart. He took her to the jungle where she wandered until she was found by a shepherd woman who nursed her back to health. But her hatred for the Ram brothers, especially Sri Ram, was the one wound that would not heal. When she was well enough to travel, Phoolan began to plot her revenge. Eventually she joined a gang of dacoits made up of men from the gadariya caste, but she wasn’t interested in working for another master. She stayed only long enough to kidnap two wealthy merchants and earn 50,000 rupees in ransom. She wanted to start her own gang. Another dacoit leader, a Muslim named Baba Mustakim, offered to help her when he heard of the indignities she suffered at the hand of Sri Ram. Mustakim offered to give her ten of his own men to start her gang, and she could pick whomever she wanted.

Sample Essay Compare and Contrast Two Cities

Sample Essay Compare and Contrast Two CitiesSample essay compare and contrast two cities is intended to help students in elementary school. The idea behind the essay is to allow students to learn what these two cities are like in comparison to each other. In addition, the fact that this is an essay is designed to allow students to write about something and to get their thoughts down on paper. Students need to learn the different types of writing and how to process their thoughts into words.Most of the time, students feel they are lacking in this area of writing skills. They may have written a few essays of this type but they just do not know how to compare and contrast two cities. Some students feel that they lack the writing skills needed to write an essay and some don't even know what they are doing wrong. So, if you know your student is struggling in this area of writing skills, here are some tips to help them improve.The first tip is to use the sample essay as a way to teach your student the different types of words and how they work together. There are two parts to the sample essay. First, you give examples of words that are used in the locations where the sample resides. Second, you provide information on the words and how they relate to the places. The essay can be difficult for students because it involves writing information that isn't related to their lives.The second tip to helping your student with their writing skills is to always include facts about places and things. Students learn that they need to use descriptive words when they are trying to describe things or events. However, you want them to understand that it is okay to use verbs when describing something. In the example of the sample essay, the essay describes two cities, Atlanta and New York.Students are encouraged to write information about both cities in one paragraph so that they can compare and contrast the two cities. Afterward, they are required to come up with a summary about the i nformation they wrote. At the end of the essay, students will want to know how they could have written more if they had a better understanding of how to use verbs when describing the cities.Since students have previous knowledge of a subject, they may feel at a loss when they start to describe places and events in the essay. A great way to help your student with this task is to create two sections of the essay. One section contains descriptions of places and events in the sample location, while the other section contains descriptions of different events. If your student is having a difficult time putting everything together, this method is the best way to help them.For students who need extra help when it comes to writing, this may be the best time to bring their teacher out of the classroom and help them during the school year. They can work with their teacher to improve their writing skills throughout the year. It's a good idea to take your teacher out of the classroom during the summer, as students often get distracted when out of school.The sample essay compare and contrast two cities will be one of the most difficult essays your student has ever written. However, the benefits it offers outweigh the difficulty of writing the essay. Your student will be able to understand what different types of words mean in this topic, which can help them when they write other essay types. Writing this type of essay allows students to get the information they need to help them write more effectively throughout the year.