Phoolan Devi: Memory, Myth, And The Villages Left Behind
Phoolan Devi's story starts in Sheikhpur Guda, where experienced fact, myth, and memory converge, rather than in folklore. In an effort to demonstrate respect, the ghoongat is raised off her statue. While interested people assemble outside the Panchayat gates, their gazes riveted, their opinions unspoken yet charged, her mother Moolan Devi and family members sit quietly and inside humble dwellings. Men take the stage to recount Phoolan's life as they recall it, while women hover in the background. The trip comes to an end in Behmai, where a memorial plaque and a faded sign commemorate the location of a slaughter that permanently split a town. Abandoned dwellings, the remains of families who never came back, are located behind shuttered gateways. Here, the villagers talk of exhaustion rather than justice, about being trapped in a story created by media spectacle that overshadowed their pain.
Phoolan Devi’s mother, Moolan Devi along with Phoolan’s cousin at her home in Shekhpur Guda | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
Curious citizens of Shekhpur lines up to take a look from the gate of the Panchayat office. Their curious gaze fixated | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
Male members of Shekhpur Guda take charge in presenting themselves for interview, their version of Phoolan devi’s narrative | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
A woman member of Shekhpur guda | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
The checkpoint. A tree where Phoolan would leave her troops to enter the village | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
A trail leading to Yamuna from Phoolan’s Village | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
Yamuna, which was often crossed by Phoolan and her troops to manoeuvre around the village | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
‘Bihad’, or Ravines, a network of river erotion that held Phoolan’s gang within, providing a safe passage and hiding spot | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
A Woman from the village of Shekhpur Guda | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
A dilapidated sign at the Village of Behmai, where Phoolan Devi massacred twenty two men from the Thakur community | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
A memorial plaque in the village of Behmai to remember the victims of Phoolan’s massacre | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
A gateway, closed off, beyond which lies the abandoned houses of families that left the village after the Behmai massacre | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
Behmai villagers claim that they have lost hope in getting a resolution for their sufferings. They blame the media for showing them as villains and hailing an assailant. | Photo: Animikh Chakrabarty/Outlook
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