{"id":29520,"date":"2024-03-15T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29520"},"modified":"2024-03-13T08:50:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T08:50:01","slug":"phoolan-devi-rebel-queen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/03\/15\/phoolan-devi-rebel-queen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoolan Devi: Rebel Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Claire Fauvel<\/strong>, translated by Montana Kane<\/strong> (NBM)
\nISBN: 978-1-68112-251-9 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Born in 1988, award-winning graphic novelist Claire Fauvel (\u00c0 <\/em><\/strong>la recherche d\u2019Alvaro Dolor<\/em><\/strong>; Sur les pas de Teresa<\/em><\/strong>, la religieuse de Calcutta<\/strong><\/em> [w\/Marie-No\u00eblle Pichard]; Une Saison en E<\/em><\/strong>gypte<\/em><\/strong>; Catherine\u2019s War<\/strong> [w\/Julia Billet]) studied illustration at Paris\u2019 L\u2019Ecole Estienne and animation at L\u2019Ecole des Gobelins before beginning an illustrious career in bande dessin\u00e9e. She\u2019s particularly adroit and adept with female historical figures\u2026<\/p>\n

Phoolan Devi: Rebel Queen<\/strong> is that rare event, a history that has all the energy and impetus of a great action adventure and pioneering, political tract. Despite being a factual graphic biography, this is the stuff of legend and grand drama, detailing the astounding, appalling, tragic and triumphant life of a woman who bucked India\u2019s ancient, all-pervasive caste system and paid the seemingly inescapable price the nation\u2019s women seem doomed to. A victim of poverty and inequality from birth, she sought change through bloody deeds and – and as is so often the case – ultimately via political action, in a country where prejudice is institutionalised and baked in: expressed via gender- and caste-based violence, and fostering for millennia a tyrannical social system of inherent, inbuilt corruption where gods and birth status forever dictate one\u2019s position in life by denying all possibility of advancement or change\u2026<\/p>\n

Phoolan<\/em> suffered a double blow at birth: born both destitute and female. Never educated, she remained illiterate all her life. Her innate burden of being shunned and in grinding poverty was further exacerbated when she was married off at age 11: beginning a harrowing pattern of slavery and sexual abuse that lasted until she was rescued by a troop of legendary bandits infesting Uttar Pradesh at the time. They were actually more decent – and fundamentally more heroic – than most respectable citizens (for which read Men), civil authorities and police officers of the region. Becoming lover to one of the gang, she suffered even greater abuse when he was murdered by a rival from a different caste.<\/p>\n

Surviving all these assaults, Phoolan organised an infamous vengeance massacre at the village of Behmai. That slaughter was picked up by the press, who recast her as a rebel queen and her lover as a martyr. The public began using the honorific \u201cDevi\u201d about her and, after a mythic career, she surrendered to authorities in 1983. Over 11 years of imprisonment, 48 capital charges including murder, plunder, arson and kidnapping were incrementally dropped before a trial that never came. In 1994, the state government led by Mulayam Singh Yadav<\/em> of the Samajwadi Party withdrew all charges and she walked free. Joining that political group, she was elected to national office twice, becoming a powerful advocate for radical change in the caste system and the patriarchal treatment of women. Regarded as the \u201cvoice of the oppressed\u201d, on 26th<\/sup> July 2001 her past caught up with her when she was assassinated by relatives of the bandits killed at Behmai.<\/p>\n

Fauvel took her inspiration from acclaimed 1996 autobiography Moi, Phoolan Devi, reine des bandits<\/em> by Phoolan Devi & Marie-Th\u00e9rese Cuny, and although not all of those events are included in this stunning and uncompromising account, the supremely enticing and engaging art succeeds in mixing some few moments of hopeful aspiration, happy romance and family unity to offset the revolting iniquities Phoolan and other women had to survive on a daily basis. Many still do.<\/p>\n

This brilliant tale is grim and unflinching in the portrayal of the constant assaults and abuses she endured, so you\u2019d best gird yourself for plenty of righteous indignation and outright anger at the catalogue of venality and casual intolerance civilised folk still seem capable of\u2026<\/p>\n

Potent, unmissable, and primed to continue the fight, this is a book you must read.
\n\u00a9 2018 Casterman. \u00a9 2020 NBM for the English translation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Claire Fauvel, translated by Montana Kane (NBM) ISBN: 978-1-68112-251-9 (HB\/Digital edition) Born in 1988, award-winning graphic novelist Claire Fauvel (\u00c0 la recherche d\u2019Alvaro Dolor; Sur les pas de Teresa, la religieuse de Calcutta [w\/Marie-No\u00eblle Pichard]; Une Saison en Egypte; Catherine\u2019s War [w\/Julia Billet]) studied illustration at Paris\u2019 L\u2019Ecole Estienne and animation at L\u2019Ecole des … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Phoolan Devi: Rebel Queen”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115,214,299,122,170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-european","category-feminism-sexual-politics","category-historical","category-non-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7G8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29523,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29520\/revisions\/29523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}