Phoolan Devi – The Dead Ladies Show

*** NOTE: This episode’s Dead Lady had a very challenging existence, particularly when she was younger, and her story is marked by multiple incidents of violence and sexual abuse. Please use caution when listening ***

In this episode, we join forces with the Ms Informed podcast to bring you the story of Phoolan Devi.

Known as India’s “Bandit Queen,” Phoolan Devi overcame a life of poverty, illiteracy, and abuse, first as a child bride, and later enduring after being kidnapped by bandits and rising to lead the gang. She eventually became a politician, campaigning for women’s causes and the poor. Even today, Phoolan is a symbol for the anger, vengeance and injustice against women in India, as well as an inspiration for the lower classes.

Madhvi Ramani and Rina Grob told her story at a recent live DLS show in Berlin. You can read the transcript here.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce this episode.

Discover the Ms Informed podcast wherever you like to listen, and here. As mentioned, Katy and Susan have done an interview with them which will appear on Ms Informed Episode 165. You can also follow them on Instagram.

Show notes:

Phoolan and others before surrendering to the police in 1983

To learn more about Phoolan Devi, check out her autobiography I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen and Malan Sen’s India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi, and on Phoolan’s legacy, read The Furies: Three Women and their Fight for Justice by journalist and writer Elizabeth Flock. As for Shekhar Kapur’s film Bandit Queen, you’re better off reading Arundhati Roy’s essay on the film.

Also mentioned was the Mann Deshi Foundation, a woman-founded charity that set up the first rural bank for women in India and helps women and girls in rural areas in India so that they are given a chance in life and help their communities.

Daughters of Destiny, available on Netflix, follows five girls from the Dalit class, who enter Shanti Bhavan, a school that educates the poorest children

If you are interested in attending the upcoming Dead Ladies Show at the Droste Festival in Muenster, get more details on the event here. And if you’d like to come see us in Berlin May 16th, consider subscribing to our newsletter to receive updates. Fans of the New York show can get their newsletter here.

Want to see the CBS News feature about us? You can find it linked to on our About page and pinned on our Instagram feed.

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work.

Drop us a line info@deadladiesshow.com or find us on social media @deadladiesshow

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

We’re back! (And welcome to our new newsletter platform! We’ve taken the liberty of keeping you on our mailing list – but let us know or unsubscribe if you’d like to leave the party.) Can this really be our 35th live show in Berlin? That’s crazy! To mark the occasion, we’re teaming up with the very-much-alive presenters of Ms Informed – “the podcast for smart but lazy people” covering feminist news and culture straight from (you guessed it) Berlin.

Our funding woes continue, alas, so both talks will be in English – by your beloved co-host KATY DERBYSHIRE, plus a joint presentation by Ms Informed’s RINA GROB and MADHVI RAMANI, more on whom below! All held together by our passionate podcast producer SUSAN STONE. Learn all about two impressive women who overcame obstacles, pushed boundaries and inspired generations. The aim of the show is to raise money for more podcasts, so we’ve adjusted the non-reduced price to €10, but reduced tickets still cost €4, get them here. Doors open 7.30 pm – come on time to get a good seat!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PHOOLAN DEVI was an Indian politician and former dacoit, a Robin Hood figure revered as the “Bandit Queen”. Her childhood in late-1960s rural Uttar Pradesh was a time of poverty, caste discrimination and sexualized violence, which continued during her bandit years from the age of 15. Living in ravines, her gang robbed cars and looted higher caste villages, sometimes disguising themselves in police uniforms. Devi became popular among lower castes; there was even a doll made in her image. After a massacre based on gang rivalry, Devi was charged with 48 crimes; she went on the run for two years but eventually surrendered and spent ten years on remand. But the charges against her were dropped and she joined the socialist Samajwadi Party, becoming an MP in 1996 and campaigning for women’s causes and the poor. Understandably, many people have told her fascinating story, including a disputed film of her life, but she dictated her autobiography (Devi was illiterate) to regain control of the narrative. Phoolan Devi was assassinated outside her New-Delhi home in 2001, aged 37. Various attempts to install statues of her have been blocked by the authorities. Her life has inspired folk singers, opera writers, filmmakers and novelists, as well as millions of others.

THERESE GIEHSE acted in movies with Vivien Leigh and Romy Schneider, founded an anti-Nazi cabaret with her lover Erika Mann, was photographed by Annemarie Schwarzenbach, and embodied several of Bertolt Brecht’s best-known characters on stage. Born in Munich in 1898, she went against her liberal Jewish family’s expectations to train as an actor, cast as older characters even as a young woman. The Pfeffermühle cabaret started up in 1933, swiftly moving to Zürich to escape the Nazis. With Erika and Klaus Mann, Giehse toured the political show around Europe, never mentioning any names but using parables and storytelling to rip the piss out of Hitler and his henchmen. She returned to Zürich in 1937, where she joined the outstanding cast at the Schauspielhaus theatre, many of them also emigrants like her. During the war, she performed in the premiere staging of Brecht’s anti-war play Mother Courage, defining the title role in what some directors have called the greatest play of the 20th century. She went on working with Brecht and other key playwrights and directors after 1945, in Munich, Zürich and East Berlin. Therese Giehse maintained her pacifist stance throughout her life, criticising the Vietnam War at public events. She died in 1975 and is buried with her sister in Zürich.

And now for our guest presenters from Ms Informed:

Madhvi Ramani writes articles, essays, plays and prose. Her most recent children’s book Whisper, Shout, Let it Out (Macmillan, 2023) encourages children to experiment with their voices. Her work has been published in Asia Literary Review, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her collaboration with the sound artist Lutz Gallmeister, Water Stories, was performed at ACUD Berlin and at the Hamburg Floating Transmissions Festival.

Rina Grob was born in Munich and grew up between Germany and the USA. After a time in film and theatre in London und New York, she now works in Berlin as a producer and podcaster, focusing on the nexus between feminism and pop culture.

Tag: Phoolan Devi

Podcast #70: Phoolan Devi

Dead Ladies Show #35: Phoolan Devi & Therese Giehse!