Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics

Home > Other > Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics > Page 31
Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics Page 31

by Jason Porath


  In the intervening months, Phoolan had become the boogeyman of rural India. Putting together her own all-mallah gang, she had mercilessly terrorized the unjust. She would castrate rapists and cut off their noses, raid the rich to give to the poor, and free women from slavery. Even mallahs unaffiliated with her took to protecting themselves by threatening that she would show up to avenge them—which she often did. Copycats would pose as her to gain credibility. No photo had ever been taken of her, and few who’d seen her face were still alive to tell the tale. She was the ruthless reincarnation of Durga. And she’d come back to Behmai.

  When the Ram brothers did not appear, Phoolan’s men murdered all 22 thakur men in the village, an outrage that led to the launch of a massive manhunt by Indira Gandhi’s government. Phoolan dodged armies, grenade-tossing helicopters, and all-out firefights for two years in her search for the Ram brothers. Eventually word got to her that Sri Ram, the chief architect of her misery, had been killed by his brother Lala in a fight over a woman. With her hated enemy dead, Phoolan’s rage slowly dissipated and she negotiated her own surrender.

  In February 1983, in front of 8,000 cheering fans, 19-year-old Phoolan Devi laid down her arms before portraits of Durga and Mahatma Gandhi and went into police custody. And yet, this was not to be the last chapter of her life.

  Even Phoolan herself later admitted that she was half feral when she surrendered. Having never experienced anything approaching the modern conveniences of life, she saw everything new as a threat. Cameras were guns, common English words were insults, and marriage proposals (of which she fielded many) were assassination attempts in disguise. Her paranoia was not totally unfounded—several unsuccessful attacks were made on her life, and when she was diagnosed with ovarian cysts, she was given an unnecessary hysterectomy. The doctor was quoted as saying, “We don’t want Phoolan Devi breeding more Phoolan Devis.”

  Despite her near-complete illiteracy, she negotiated remarkable terms for her incarceration. Phoolan was to serve only eight years, her father was to be awarded the land Mayadin had stolen from him, and her brother was to be given a government job. Even though she ended up serving 11 years without a trial—the Indian legal system of the time was continuously swayed by contemporary politics—she was eventually given a full pardon by a fellow low-caste politician.

  Seeing the power inherent in the political system, she too decided to run for office—and won in a landslide. She spent her time in office fighting for the downtrodden and sweeping into prisons unannounced to visit old friends. She married a relatively quiet man whom she referred to in Hindi as “my wife.” Her public image was often at the forefront of her mind. In 1994, when Bandit Queen, an unauthorized film about her life was released, she protested vigorously and attempted to get it removed from theaters. She hated that it depicted her as “a sniveling woman.”

  After only five years in office, Phoolan was gunned down in the street, in revenge for the Behmai massacre. There were allegations of a cover-up, or at least severe incompetence, by the investigating officers. In 2014, one of her three killers was sentenced to life in prison.

  Many journalists throughout the last years of her life questioned and outright attacked her history—many of the details of her years of banditry have yet to be independently verified. But she always took great exception to anyone assailing the essential truth of her story. As Phoolan lambasted one reporter:

  Do you have any idea what it’s like to live in a village in India? What you call rape, that kind of thing happens to poor women in the villages every day. It is assumed that the daughters of the poor are for the use of the rich. They assume that we’re their property. In the villages the poor have no toilets, so we must go to the fields, and the moment we arrive, the rich lay us there; we can’t cut the grass or tend to our crops without being accosted by them. We are the property of the rich. . . . They wouldn’t let us live in peace; you will never understand what kind of humiliation that is. If they wanted to rape us, to molest us, and our families objected, then they’d rape us in front of our families.

  The difference between others and her, Phoolan maintained, was that she dared to fight back.

  • ART NOTES •

  The abusive man on whom Phoolan sits has scar patterns in the shape of tiger stripes, as a callback to her reputation as an avatar of Durga, who is often depicted riding a tiger.

  Although there is no record of Phoolan having inducted other women into her gang, after saving downtrodden women she often castigated them for not having saved themselves. She was more likely to hand money to other women than to give them a gun. The various women here represent some of the abused whom she helped.

  The well in the background is modeled on the one in Behmai by which the 22 thakur men were murdered. The well has crumbling reddish tile around it, which is meant to give the impression of blood as it spills out and pools up around Phoolan.

  In the background, the thakur men are being lined up to be shot. Visually, they appear to almost be floating in the reddened area around the well already.

  It Doesn’t Have to Stop Here!

  There is more information available online on almost every entry you’ve

  read here—side stories, concept art, reference imagery—and that’s before you get into

  the new entries that go up regularly for free!

  So come with your comments, your criticisms, your corrections, and join us over at

  (Or don’t. I’m not going to tell you how to live your life.)

  Thanks for reading!

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks go to:

  For helping with every single part of everything:

  Jeremy Porath

  For unwavering moral support:

  Karen Hamilton

  Kim Tang

  Eileen “Lady Lin” Ambing

  Sandra Daugherty

  For making the book happen:

  Alexandra Machinist, Doug Johnson, and the rest of the team at ICM Partners

  Carrie Thornton, Sean Newcott, and everyone else at Dey Street

  Lily Tillers, Loan Dang, and everyone at Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finklestein, & Lezcano

  For editing help:

  Jonathan Glenn Truitt, Associate Professor of Colonial Latin American History at Central Michigan University (Malinche, Micaela Bastidas, Anita Garibaldi)

  Brittany Bayless Fremion, Assistant Professor of History at Central Michigan University (all the North America entries)

  Kelly Murphy, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Central Michigan University (Jezebel, Yael)

  Jeanette Wu (Wu Zetian, Yoshiko Kawashima, Ching Shih, Trung Sisters, Qiu Jin)

  Peta Lindsay (Ida B. Wells)

  Sara Gaines (Boudica)

  Allyson Carr (Christine de Pizan)

  Rachael Haigh (Artemisia Gentileschi)

  Linda Taba (Yaa Asantewaa)

  Raqi Syed (A’isha bint abi Bakr)

  Nafees Bin Zafar (A’isha bint abi Bakr)

  Jonaya Kemper-Rice (A’isha bint abi Bakr)

  Theresa Watterson (Grace O’Malley)

  Aubree Katherine Newhall (Mariya Oktyabrskaya, Joey Guerrero, Elisabeth Báthory)

  Jon Harris (Jezebel)

  For suggesting entries:

  Arabella Caulfield (Andamana, Keumalahayati)

  queenvictoriaroyalty on Tumblr (Alfhild)

  Nikita Gadre (Amba)

  Silverlady (Anita Garibaldi)

  Flavia Saraceni Huber (Annie Jump Cannon)

  easyjammin on Tumblr (Arawelo)

  Rivka Suparna (Artemisia Gentileschi)

  Astrid Phillips Mayer (Elisabeth Báthory)

  elegantmess-southernbelle on Tumblr (Princess Caraboo)

  an-errant-curl on Tumblr (Christine de Pizan)

  changedmamma on Tumblr (Emmeline Pankhurst)

  John Owens (Grace O’Malley)

  Peter Asberg (Hortense and Marie Mancini, Mary Lacy)

  justafakeme on Tumblr (Iara)

&nbs
p; Kate Beaton (Ida B. Wells)

  Nydia Herrera (Malinche)

  grunnels on Tumblr (Malinche)

  Asha Dahya (Laskarina Bouboulina)

  David Leaman (Marie Marvingt)

  Chris K. Layman (Mary Bowser)

  Jim MacQuarrie (Mata Hari)

  Martin Brennand (Matilda of Tuscany, Wu Zetian)

  Chantal Lathanc (Micaela Bastidas)

  Irene Kim Asbury (Empress Myeongseong)

  serenada on Tumblr (Nanny of the Maroons)

  Wendi Milasi (Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland)

  Laurie Scott (Noor Inayat Khan)

  Jeremy Porath (Nzinga Mbande, Qiu Jin, Tomoe Gozen, Tomyris, Trung sisters)

  Terri Drake Imhoof (Phoolan Devi)

  Jean Choi (Pope Joan)

  B. M. Matthews (Rani Lakshmibai)

  crawd on Tumblr (Olga of Kiev)

  Stacey Adams (Sybil Ludington)

  kitsunechan on Tumblr (Wallada bint al-Mustakfi)

  Alyzee Morales (Xtabay)

  Jasmine Faelyn (Yaa Asantewaa)

  Jane Onwuchekwa (Yaa Asantewaa)

  charlape on Tumblr (Yael)

  Sara C. (Yoshiko Kawashima)

  Bibliography

  Khutulun

  Polo, Marco. 1875. The Book of Ser Marco Polo the Venetian: Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, vol. 2. Translated by Sir Henry Yule. London: John Murray.

  Weatherford, Jack. 2010. “The Wrestler Princess.” Lapham’s Quarterly, September 27. Accessed June 14, 2014. http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/wrestler-princess.

  Tatterhood

  Carter, Angela. 2012. Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales. London: Virago Press.

  Agnodice

  Grant, Mary, ed. 1960. The Myths of Myginus. Translated by Mary Grant. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.

  Te Puea Herangi

  King, Michael. 2008. Te Puea: A Life. Auckland: Penguin Group New Zealand.

  Parsonson, Ann. 1996. “Herangi, Te Kirihaehae Te Puea.” In Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, vol. 3. Updated October 9, 2013. http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/3h17/herangi-te-kirihaehae-te-puea.

  Moremi Ajasoro

  kwekudee. 2014. “Ife People: Ancient Artistic, Highly Spiritual, and the First Yoruba People.” Trip Down Memory Lane, September 14. http://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.ca/2014/09/ife-people-ancient-artistic-highly_14.html.

  Ogumefu, M. I. 1929. Yoruba Legends. London: Sheldon Press.

  Ragan, Kathleen. 2000. Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World. W. W. Norton & Company.

  Ring, Trudy, Robert M. Salkin, and Sharon La Boda. 1994. International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa, vol. 4. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis.

  Sybil Ludington

  Bohrer, Melissa Lukeman. 2007. Glory, Passion, and Principle: The Story of Eight Remarkable Women at the Core of the American Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster.

  Dacquino, V. T. 2000. “Sybil’s Story.” From Sybil Ludington: The Call to Arms. Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain Press. http://ludingtonsride.com/history.htm.

  Johnson, Willis Fletcher. 1907. Colonel Henry Ludington: A Memoir. New York.

  Patrick, Louis S. 1907. “Secret Service of the American Revolution.” Journal of American History 1.

  Kurmanjan Datka

  Kakeev, A., et al. 2002. Tsarina of the Mountains: Kurmanjan and Her Times. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Ilim.

  Andamana

  Mathilda. 2008. “The Guanches of the Canary Islands.” Mathilda’s Anthropology Blog, March 10. https://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/the-guanches-of-the-canary-islands/.

  Whiting, William B. 1875. Andamana: The First Queen of Canary, Ancestress of the Family of Eugenie, the Late Empress of the French, and Her Remarkable and Successful Coup d’État. New York: Edward O. Jenkins.

  Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale

  Robinson, Jane. 2004. Mary Seacole: The Most Famous Black Woman of the Victorian Age. New York: Carroll & Graf.

  Gráinne “Grace O’Malley” Ní Mháille

  Chambers, Anne. 2003. Ireland’s Pirate Queen: The True Story of Grace O’Malley. New York: MJF Books.

  “Stagecoach” Mary Fields

  Cooper, Gary. 1977. “Stagecoach Mary: A Gun-Toting Black Woman Delivered the US Mail in Montana.” Ebony, October.

  Dow, Luella. 2009. “On the Road: Women Mail Carriers Celebrate Century and a Half of Service.” Cheney Free Press, May 22. http://www.cheneyfreepress.com/story/2009/05/22/neighborhood/on-the-road-women-mail-carriers-celebrate-century-and-a-half-of-service/5921.html.

  Drewry, Jennifer M. 1999. “Mary Fields: A Pioneer in Cascade’s Past.” Footsteps, March-April. Reprinted at Cascade Montana. http://www.cascademontana.com/mary.htm.

  Hazen, Walter. 2004. Hidden History: Profiles of Black Americans. St. Louis: Milliken Publishing Company.

  Shirley, Gayle. 1995. More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Montana Women. Helena: Falcon Press.

  Yennenga

  Schwarz-Bart, Simone, and André Schwarz-Bart. 2002. In Praise of Black Women, vol. 2, Heroines of the Slavery Era. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press/Modus Vivendi.

  Sheldon, Kathleen E. 2005. Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

  Annie Jump Cannon

  Veglahn, Nancy. 1991. American Profiles: Women Scientists. New York: Facts on File.

  Wilma Rudolph

  Smith, Maureen M. 2006. Wilma Rudolph: A Biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

  Alfhild

  Druett, Joan. 2000. She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea. New York: Simon & Schuster.

  Killings, Douglas B., ed. 1905. The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus. Translated by Oliver Elton. New York: Norroena Society. Reprinted at Online Medieval & Classical Library. http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/book7.html.

  Calafia

  Montalvo, Gaci Rodrigues de. 1992. The Labors of the Very Brave Knight Esplandian. Translated by William Thomas Little. Binghamton: State University of New York, Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies.

  Keumalahayati

  Clavé-Çelik, Elsa. 2008. “Images of the Past and Realities of the Present: Aceh’s Inong Balee.” International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter 48, Summer. http://www.iias.nl/sites/default/files/IIAS_NL48_1011.pdf.

  Sufi, Rusdi. 1994. “Laksamana Keumalahayati.” In Wanita utama Nusantara dalam lintasan sejarah (Prominent Women in the Glimpse of History), edited by Ismail Sofyan, M. Hasan Basry, and Teuku Ibrahim Alfian. Jakarta.

  Marie Marvingt

  Lebow, Eileen F. 2002. Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation. Washington, DC: Brassey’s.

  “Flying Not the Sport for Women.” 1910. El Paso (TX) Herald, December 6.

  “Red Cross Aeroplanes.” 1914. Fergus County (Lewiston, MT) Democrat, March 31.

  Iara

  Benedito, Mouzar. 2013. Understanding Brazil, the Country of Football. Translated by Phil Turner. São Paolo: Liz Editora.

  “Brazilian Folklore #1: The Tale of Iara.” Not Blue, Nor Red. http://motorcyclles.tumblr.com/post/77640457917/brazilian-folklore-1-the-tale-of-iara.

  Duende, Daniel. 2008. “Brazilian Myths and Haunts on the Lusosphere—Part 1.” GlobalVoices, October 15. https://globalvoices.org/2008/10/15/brazilian-myths-and-haunts-1/.

  Tunks, Jeanne. 2001. “Brazilian Music and Culture: An Internet Tour.” Social Studies and the Young Learner (National Council for the Social Studies), 14 (2): 14–15.

  Jane Dieulafoy

  Adams, Amanda. 2010. Ladies of the Field: Early Women Archaeologists and Their Search for Adventure. Vancouver: Greystone Books.

  Tin Hinan

  Glacier, Osire. 2013. Political Women in Morocco: Then and Now. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press.

  Robinson, Marsha R. 2012. Matriarchy, Patriarchy, and Imperial Security in Africa: Explaining Riots in Europe and Violence in
Africa. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

  “The Tomb of Tin Hinan, Desert Queen of the Tuaregs.” 1968. Look and Learn, December 14. Reposted August 6, 2013, at Look and Learn: History Picture Library. http://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/26338/the-tomb-of-tin-hinan-desert-queen-of-the-tuaregs/.

  Wilde, Lyn Webster. 2000. On the Trail of the Women Warriors: The Amazons in Myth and History. New York: Thomas Dunne Books.

  Hatshepsut

  Cooney, Kara. 2014. The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt. New York: Crown.

  Emmy Noether

  Dick, Auguste. 1981. Emmy Noether, 1882–1935. Translated by H. I. Blocher. Boston: Birkhauser.

  Ka’ahumanu

  Mellen, Kathleen Dickenson. 1952. The Magnificent Matriach, Ka’ahumanu, Queen of Hawaii. New York: Hastings House.

  Katie Sandwina

  Fair, John D. 2005. “Kati Sandwina: ‘Hercules Can Be a Lady.’” Iron Game History 9 (2): 4–7. http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/IGH/IGH0902/IGH0902d.pdf.

  Foulkes, Debbie. 2010. “Katie Sandwina (1884–1952): Circus Strongwoman.” Forgotten Newsmakers, December 14. https://forgottennewsmakers.com/2010/12/14/katie-sandwina-1884-%E2%80%93-1952-circus-strongwoman/.

  Pednaud, J. Tithonus. n.d. “Sandwina—Woman of Steel.” The Human Marvels. http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/sandwina-woman-of-steel/.

  Gracia Mendes Nasi

  Brooks, Andrée Aelion. 2002. The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Doña Gracia Nasi—a Jewish Leader During the Renaissance. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House.

  Sayyida al-Hurra

  Duncombe, Laura Sook. 2015. “Sayyida al-Hurra, the Beloved, Avenging Islamic Pirate Queen.” Jezebel, March 3. http://pictorial.jezebel.com/sayyida-al-hurra-the-beloved-avenging-islamic-pirate-1685524517.

  Glacier, Osire. 2013. Political Women in Morocco: Then and Now. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press.

  Matilda of Tuscany

  Fraser, Antonia. 1989. The Warrior Queens. New York: Knopf.

  Nieuwenhuijsen, Kees C. n.d. “The Assassination of Godfrey the Hunchback.” http://www.keesn.nl/murder/text_en.htm.

 

‹ Prev