What did you think about the ending—were you satisfied or disappointed? How do you picture Geeta’s life after the story closes? In what ways does the past seem to control, or at least influence, the present in The Bandit Queens? How do the characters try to repress or escape the pain of their pasts?

Devi became a female rights activist and was elected a member of India’s Parliament from 1996 to1999—the first low-caste woman to hold that distinction.Several films have been made about her life. Ashok Roy made the 1984 film Phoolan Devi in Bengali and followed it the next year with a Hindi version entitled Kahani Phoolvati Ki ( The story of Phoolan). [57] :23 Bandit Queen came out in 1994, and in 2019 Hossein Martin Fazeli was developing a documentary entitled Phoolan. [2] :254 [13] [58] In 2022, Farrukh Dhondy announced that he was making a web series about her life told from the perspective of Rajendra Chaturvedi, the person who arranged her surrender. [59] Phoolan Devi has been represented in fine art by painters such as Rekha Rodwittiya. Her life has also been commemorated by folk singers, making her into a mythical outlaw figure. [60] Shirish Korde and Lynn Kremer wrote an opera called Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen which premiered in 2010 at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, US. [61] [62] 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.

Main accused in Phoolan Devi's killing convicted". News Karnataka. Indo-Asian News Service. 8 August 2014. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014. The notorious “Bandit Queen” who became legendary in India both for her acts of revenge and her aid to the lower castes. Geeta lives in a small Indian village. Her husband disappeared five years ago and just about everyone thinks she killed him. She didn't, but you know how people love to gossip. Having a rep as a husband killer has it's perks and disadvantages. On one hand, most people don't mess with her, afraid they will get on her bad side. But it also leads to Geeta having an interesting dilemma on her hands as now other women in the village would like her to eliminate their no-good husbands. Her life might be in jeopardy if she doesn't agree.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. [C] Gujjar took her as his property and raped her repeatedly. His second in command, Vikram Mallah, became fond of Phoolan Devi and objected to her mistreatment; he killed Gujjar and became leader of the gang. [10] He trained Phoolan Devi to use a rifle. Over the following year, the gang robbed trains and vehicles, and looted higher caste villages, sometimes disguising themselves using stolen police uniforms. [4] :247 [16] Vikram Mallah and Phoolan Devi fell in love. [17] :332 The gang lived in the ravines, constantly moving between places such as Devariya, Kanpur, and Orai. [2] :113 They found and punished Puttilal. [2] :99 As news of Phoolan Devi's exploits spread, she became popular with the poor, who called her Dasyu Sundari (Beautiful Bandit), and she was celebrated by most of the Indian mainstream media as a Robin Hood figure, who robbed from the rich to give to the poor. [12] [18] [19] She was seen as an incarnation of the Hindu goddess Durga, and a doll was produced of her in police uniform wearing a bandoleer. [12] [20] Fernandes, Leela (1999). "Reading "India's Bandit Queen": A trans/national feminist perspective on the discrepancies of representation". Signs. 25 (1): 123–152. doi: 10.1086/495416. ISSN 0097-9740. JSTOR 3175617. S2CID 143129445. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022 . Retrieved 21 December 2022. Phoolan Devi birth anniversary: An exceptional journey of the Bandit Queen". CNBC TV18. 10 August 2022. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022 . Retrieved 28 November 2022. 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.