Graphic Novel: Remembering Anti-Caste Feminist Icon Phoolan Devi

How did this highly controversial yet extraordinary woman become a feminist icon? We trace Phoolan Devi’s story.

(Illustrations by Arnica Kala/The Quint)

(This story was first published on 10 August 2020 and has been reposted from The Quint’s archives in light of Phoolan Devi's death anniversary.)

On a cold February morning in 1983, 20-year-old Phoolan Devi walked onto a temporarily erected stage, in the outskirts of Bhind, and surrendered before the then state Chief Minister Arjun Singh. She was facing multiple charges of murder and kidnapping. Less than two decades later, she went on to become one of the first women from an oppressed community to be elected to India’s Parliament.

Despite the serious criminal charges, how did this highly controversial yet extraordinary woman become a feminist icon? On her birth anniversary, we trace her story.