Phoolan Devi
- Category : 1963-births
- Type : MGP
- Profile : 4/6 - Opportunistic / Role Model
- Definition : Single
- Incarnation Cross : RAX The Sphinx 3
Biography
Indian "Bandit Queen," a local Robin Hood who encouraged low caste Indians, especially women, to demand equality by law. In 1994 her life story was the subject of a controversial film, "The Bandit Queen."
Born to a low-caste family, Devi was married at 11 to a man 20 years older (for a bicycle and a cow). When she ran away from his brutal treatment, she was disgraced with no social position, rejected by her own family in shame. As a teenager, she was gang raped and in 1981, she took revenge with the murder of 22 high caste men. She was imprisoned until 1994 when she was released. She converted to Buddhism, seeing it as a way out of the caste system. Devi also entered politics as a social activist and was elected to Parliament in 1996 and, championing the rights of the poor, was reelected as M.P. in 1998.
On 7/25/2001, she was shot to death outside her home in Delhi at 13:00 IST by two masked youths, a legend in her own time.