Bizarre as it may sound, the practice of arranging marriages in such a way is not uncommon in the world of bandits. In 1940s, for instance, Mansingh’s niece was married to the son of a wealthy landowner in similar circumstances. A photograph of the couple still decorates the family home in Khara Rathore, where his only surviving son, Tehsildar Singh, now lives.

“Then, after two or three months, there was another letter from Sri Ram. This time he pleaded with Vikram to get him released on bail, saying that he could not suffer in jail any more and would rather commit suicide. Again, Vikram committed several dacoities in a frantic bid to get enough money together for his bail. There were six cases against Sri Ram in Knapur and two in Orai. The bail for Kanpur was 30,000 rupees and it was 14,000 for the charges he faced in Orai. Finally, when Sri Ram was freed he did not go home because he feared the police might re-arrest him but came straight to us in the jungle. It was the month of Baisakh [the middle of the rainy season].

“When Sri Ram met Vikram he said, “So, you’ve become famous now. Sophisticated weapons, a big gang, even a mistress! Not bad at all.’ Vikram replied, ‘Guruji, I hope I have not offended you in any way. I have alwayssought your permission before doing anything.’ Then, taking his rifle off his shoulder, he handed it to Sri Ram and said, ‘Thakur sahib, here is your gun. It is good to see you back among us.’ Sri Ram asked where I was and said, ‘Come on, introduce her to me.’

“Vikram them came to call me, saying that his guru had arrived and I must meet him and get his blessings. So I got up from where I had been resting and went towards the gathering. I asked Vikram which one was his ‘guru’, because there were three or four strange faces, and he indicated a short man sitting on the well-made bed. I went forward to touch his feet, but he caught my hand and told me to sit beside him saying, ‘Where are you going? I have been visualizing this meeting while I languished in jail.’”

Despite her discomfort, Phoolan says, for Vikram’s sake she decided to play the role that was expected of her. She talked of their experiences in recent exploits, while Sri Ram recounted anecdotes from prison. Lala Ram was a puny-looking young man who obviously lived in his brother’s shadow and said little.

Phoolan Devi took an instant dislike to Sri Ram and felt contempt for his brother whom she judged to be weak and sly. Sri Ram’smanner of speaking and dealing with those around him reminded her of Babu Singh and she noticed that, within hours, he had begun to assert his authority and order other members of the gang around, asking for more tea, enquiring about arrangements for food and missing no opportunity to punctuate his conversation with comments she found offensive. Feeling annoyed and resentful, she walked away and joined Bharat Singh who was on guard duty some distance from the camp.

Bharat shared her dislike of Sri Ram. He told her he had warned Vikram to keep away from him, that he was not to be trusted and would create disharmony in the gang; but Vikram had known him since his teenage years, as a casual “runner” for the gang, and felt a curious loyalty towards Sri Ram that was hard to question. Reassured by the moral support she had been given by his closest friend in the gang, Phoolan Devi decided to discuss the matter with Vikram Mallah as soon as the opportunity arose. She was sure she could influence him. He had come to trust her instincts and often considered her opinions before making serious decisions.

This was not because her experience of life in the ravines could match his but because he had learnt to accept her interpretation of “signs” and “symbols”, which he believed were messages from the supernatural, from God. The importance given to such instincts, based on the observation of ordinary daily events, was a timeless component of his culture. In his book The Yellow Scarf, Sir Francis Tuker observes, recalling the times of “Thuggee” Sleeman:

Omens were taken from the head of a dead sheep, the convulsive movements of mouth and nostrils being noted as propitious or not when a fluid was poured on them. Before they actually left, some of the gang would proceed in the direction they were to take to observe the flight of the birds and listen to the chirping of lizards. If the omens were ill, then they did the same in the other direction and chose the roads that portended the greatest success.

The following were favourable signs: a lizard chirping and a crow making a noise on a living tree on the left. A tiger appearing was deemed rather a good sign. The noise of a partridge on the right side denoted that they would meet with good booty on the very spot and there accordingly they would halt.

These betokened misfortune: a hare or a snake crossing the road before them: a crow sitting and making a noise on a rock or a dead tree; an ass braying while sitting; an owl screeching; the noise of a single jackal. If a dog should carry off the head of a sheep which they had sacrificed, it betokened no booty for many years.

As omens were also watched during the campaign itself, the occasional victim has owed his life all unwittingly to an adverse omen. It is unlucky to murder a female or a person of the Kamala caste, metal workers, carpenters, washermen, vagrants, stone-cutters, pot-makers and lepers, also the blind and mutilated or a man driving a cow or female goat. Many a party of travellers have owed their lives to one of these humble souls being among them. There was no difference made between rich and poor, for this was a religious duty and the Thug killed because he was instructed to kill by Kali; nevertheless there would be some disappointment when, for instance, the gang went to the trouble of strangling a humble person whose bag contained nothing but the tools of his trade or a cooking-pot.

Although dacoit gangs of this century did not claim to be waging a religious crusade as the Thugs of the past had done, many aspects of their beliefs are similar. The goddess Kali, also known as Durga Mata, Mata, Bajrang Devi, Mahadevi, Sitla Mata and numerous other manifestations, is still the most widely worshipped deity of all. The omens that signal good or evil have changed little and are still a strong influence on many. Phoolan Devi was no exception.

That night, sitting cross-legged beside Vikram who was lying down, tired by the day’s events, she says she felt tense and insecure, almost afraid. She said to him of the brothers, “They will bring us bad luck. Don’t let them join the gang.” Vikram reminded her that it was their gang as much as his and said he didn’t expect her to understand because she hadn’t been with them at the time. He remained silent through the rest of her arguments, keeping his eyes shut. When she spoke of a crow she had seen on a dead tree while talking to Bharat, he was merely amused. Taking his silence to mean indifference, she finally said, almost in tears, “Look at the way he treated me!” Phoolan records his response in her diary:

“Vikram seemed to be angry with me and said, ‘Phoolan, you must not behave so docile and demure. When Sri Ram caught you by the hand, why didn’t you just slap his face? In future, if anyone touches you or even teases you, hit him and pick up your life.’ I explained that I had not done anything because Vikram always referred to him as his ‘guru’. I had not wanted to make him angry. ‘Never mind me and what I say,’ Vikram told me. ‘Remember, always defend yourself.’ He then said Sri Ram and Lala Ram would be leaving the next morning to visit their family. He had given Sri Ram 10,000 rupees. We were leaving for the jungles of Maheshpur, not far from the village where my husband and his family lived. Vikram asked me, as a joke, whether I wanted to visit my in-laws and kidnap Puttilal. I said it was not a bad idea, that an animal like him deserved some punishment.

“What Vikram has said preyed on my mind. It was true, I had always been subservient to men. I swore from that day onwards that I would learn to talk back and fight my own battles. The next day, after we had moved camp, I said to Vikram, ‘Come on, let’s go to my husband’s house. I shall beat Puttilal with my own hands today.’ Vikram called half the gang together and we left around noon, arriving at my husband’s village at about 3 p.m.

“We went to his house and seized all the inmates. Vikram asked me to identify Puttilal but he was not among them. So we searched for him inside the house and found him hiding in a room full of cattlefeed. One of our gang members, Bharat, caught him and dragged him to us. I gave vent to years of bottled-up frustration and anger. ‘You brute, do you recognize me? Who am I to you?’ Puttilal mistook me for a man and said he did not recognize me. So I abused him some more and said, ‘Don’t you know me? I am your wife Phoolan. You evil man! So you married three times, did you? Don’t you remember how you tortured me?’ I kept on hitting him. I was hysterical and sobbed, relating my story to the gang. ‘I was only eleven,’ said, ‘and he was as old as he is now! He would take his sadistic pleasures, frightening me to such an extent that I was physically ill all the time I was with him, but he showed me no mercy. And when I went for a few days’ respite to my parents’ house, he and his second wife started torturing me on my return. They would beat me mercilessly and make me go hungry for days.’ All through this I was beating him black and blue, using the butt of my rifle, my hands, my feet.

“We tied up Puttilal and his wife Vidya and we left the village with them. I wanted to kill them in the vicinity of the Sikandra police station and leave a note that this would be the fate of any man who married two wives.

“When we were barely a mile from the police station, I changed my mind and decided not to kill them but to let them live to tell the tale. This time I beat them both, so much so that Puttilal lost two of his teeth and I broke his arms and legs, before leaving them there, tied together, with a letter to the daroga [police inspector], claiming responsibility for the act.

“Vikram wasimpressed and pleased, patting me on the back, saying, ‘Where have you been hiding all this strength? I didn’t know that you had it in you to do what you have just done. I know you will earn a name for yourself and be able to face your enemies like a true baghi!’

“We then crossed to the jungles of the Jamuna and in the morning got news that Sri Ram and Lala Ram were on the run from the police again and had been looking for us. They wanted to join the gang, as they feared the police and the courts and had no other support. This time many people objected, saying they would cause a rift in the gang, that they were not trustworthy, but Vikram cut them short, saying if we didn’t help them and lend support, who would? He sent two men to search for them, saying we would be in the jungles of Raipur for the next few days. It took them eight days to find us.’

Alliances and Conflicts Within

IN ADDITION TO the divisions and hostilities that exist within the Hindu caste structure, there has been considerable conflict between Hindus and Muslim in India for many centuries. Curiously, this is not reflected in what we know of the world of banditry, despite the prevailing conditions that fuel this enmity throughout the rest of society. Sleeman, writing about “The legendary origin to Thuggee”, comes to the conclusion that:

The true origin of Thuggee is shrouded in obscurity, but it is said to have sprung from the Sagartii, who contributed 8,000 horses to the army of Xerxes and are described by Herodotus in the VIIth book of his History.

These people led a pastoral life; were originally of Persian descent and use that language; their dress is something betwixt the Persian and Pactyan; they have no offensive weapons either of iron or brass, except their daggers; their principal dependence in action is on cords made of twisted leather which they use in this manner; when they engage an enemy they throw these cords, having a noose at the extremity; if they entangle in these either horse or man they, without difficulty, put them to death.

There is reason to believe that the descendants of these Sagartii accompanied a Mohamedan invader of India and settled in the neighbourhood of Delhi.