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Red Flower got me a Nook e-book reader a while back, partly to inhibit my collecting of more paper volumes. Nonetheless I find myself drawn to 2nd hand bookstores, where by wandering the stacks of books I come across things I would probably never consider searching out. The universe, as it were, seems to thrust them into my sphere of attention.
The latest such work I stumbled across was an autobiography of Phoolan Devi, titled “The Bandit Queen of India.” She dictated the book in 1995, shortly before she was elected a member of the Indian Parliament. She was assassinated by a gunman in 2001.
She was born into a low-caste family in a small Indian village. Her family was treated as a cash-crop by the (comparatively) wealthy and high caste of the village. As soon as her family would start to get a bit ahead whatever they had would be unceremoniously taken from them. Her firey temperament brought her into conflict with her oppressors. First, far before puberty, she was married to a much older man. After there were a series of gang rapes by the wealthy and high caste, and when she complained to the police, by the police.
Finally the villagers paid some bandits to kidnap her and take her away. That turned out to be a bad move. Before long the fiery young girl who looked up to the demon-slaying goddess Durga was the leader of a band of bandits. She turned into a latter-day Robin Hood figure, robbing from the rich and distributing to the poor, and avenging thefts and rapes perpetrated on the low-caste by murder and gruesome mutilations. Her fame and popularity among the low-caste grew throughout India. The government, try as it could, was unsuccessful in catching her. She was viewed as an incarnation of Durga by many.
Finally she surrendered to government forces, on her own terms. She was put into jail for 11 years without a trial, until the political winds shifted and all charges against her were dropped. Meanwhile her fame had continued to grow and she was propelled into Indian politics.
I have to wonder why such a book came into my hand. Perhaps for me to be able to declare, from a position of moral superiority, that the caste system is bad. Perhaps, but I don’t think so. Many questions came to me as I read Phoolan’s account. Some were about the people that accepted and bowed to the system, not only because their oppressors had greater power and resources, but also because they were taught to do so by their culture and they did not question those cultural programmings. There are perhaps close to a billion people living in villages under these conditions, and very few resist like Phoolan. Other questions were about the oppressors. Seemingly nice enough people if you didn’t happen to be under them in the order, but many very heartless to those below them. That is, until the balance of power should happen to shift. Phoolan herself as a dacoit was sometimes trapped by cultural rules on whom she could murder, and whom she could not.
Many of the affronts to human dignity and liberty were difficult to see in the culture Phoolan was immersed in. Just as a fish may have a hard time perceiving the water it swims in. One has to question, after reading such an account, how many such affronts to our common humanity we are blind to in our own culture, and implicitly condone.
The WikiPedia article on Phoolan Devi is here.
The latest such work I stumbled across was an autobiography of Phoolan Devi, titled “The Bandit Queen of India.” She dictated the book in 1995, shortly before she was elected a member of the Indian Parliament. She was assassinated by a gunman in 2001.
She was born into a low-caste family in a small Indian village. Her family was treated as a cash-crop by the (comparatively) wealthy and high caste of the village. As soon as her family would start to get a bit ahead whatever they had would be unceremoniously taken from them. Her firey temperament brought her into conflict with her oppressors. First, far before puberty, she was married to a much older man. After there were a series of gang rapes by the wealthy and high caste, and when she complained to the police, by the police.
Finally the villagers paid some bandits to kidnap her and take her away. That turned out to be a bad move. Before long the fiery young girl who looked up to the demon-slaying goddess Durga was the leader of a band of bandits. She turned into a latter-day Robin Hood figure, robbing from the rich and distributing to the poor, and avenging thefts and rapes perpetrated on the low-caste by murder and gruesome mutilations. Her fame and popularity among the low-caste grew throughout India. The government, try as it could, was unsuccessful in catching her. She was viewed as an incarnation of Durga by many.
Finally she surrendered to government forces, on her own terms. She was put into jail for 11 years without a trial, until the political winds shifted and all charges against her were dropped. Meanwhile her fame had continued to grow and she was propelled into Indian politics.
I have to wonder why such a book came into my hand. Perhaps for me to be able to declare, from a position of moral superiority, that the caste system is bad. Perhaps, but I don’t think so. Many questions came to me as I read Phoolan’s account. Some were about the people that accepted and bowed to the system, not only because their oppressors had greater power and resources, but also because they were taught to do so by their culture and they did not question those cultural programmings. There are perhaps close to a billion people living in villages under these conditions, and very few resist like Phoolan. Other questions were about the oppressors. Seemingly nice enough people if you didn’t happen to be under them in the order, but many very heartless to those below them. That is, until the balance of power should happen to shift. Phoolan herself as a dacoit was sometimes trapped by cultural rules on whom she could murder, and whom she could not.
Many of the affronts to human dignity and liberty were difficult to see in the culture Phoolan was immersed in. Just as a fish may have a hard time perceiving the water it swims in. One has to question, after reading such an account, how many such affronts to our common humanity we are blind to in our own culture, and implicitly condone.
The WikiPedia article on Phoolan Devi is here.
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