Narrative Justice for Phoolan Devi in Epic Recounting

ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Gestures of Cultural Justice: Narrative Justice forPhoolan Devi in Epic RecountingBRAHMA PRAKASH

Brahma Prakash ([email protected]) teaches at the School of Arts and Aesthetics,Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.Vol. 57, Issue No. 9, 26 Feb, 2022

The epic tale of Phoolan Devi has inspired several studies and artistic works around her lifeand struggle. This includes her representation in the works of literature, cinema, paintingand other genres. They brought complex discourses around the politics of representationsand the question of genre and medium itself. None of these studies, however, examines howMallah, the caste Phoolan Devi belonged or the local subaltern communities want to projectDevi in their narrative discourses. Thinking through the epic and ballads on the life ofPhoolan Devi, created by her own community in particular and Bahujan community ingeneral, this article reads the representation of Devi as a case of narrative justice. FromDevi’s image as a revengeful figure and the Bandit Queen of popular culture, Phoolan Devihas slowly emerged as the queen of justice for the local subaltern communities. Contrary tothe sensational approach of popular and the voice to the voiceless approach of the scholarlywritings, the epic narratives around Phoolan are more steady and up to the mark to engagewith the contemporary discourse of caste, gender and intersectional representation. Thoughthere are many ballad singers and performers who sing the story of Phoolan Devi in birhaand alha style, I discuss the alha of Phoolan Devi by Ajay Sahni, a singer from Mallahcommunity. I situate their representations or recounting of Phoolan’s life as part of culturaljustice that involves the battle over the relations of representation and “correcting” thediscourse of narrative injustices. This article also raises the question of genre—which is agenre more capable of bringing the agency and struggle of a particular community. As the

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epic performance brings the question of morality and recognition in strong ways, the formsbecome explicitly political, unlike the other genres. Both the epic forms alha and birhasituate the discourses of what is to be human. The form is specially very popular inBundelkhand region from where Phoolan belonged to. This makes the genre very special todiscuss the question of representation.

Introduction

That which is denied must be imagined.

-Sartre (1964:218)

This article is a small section of my working monograph “The Epical Subjects and theQuestions of Cultural Justice in India.” The work embarks on the fundamental claimembodied in the famous phrase that “justice should not only be done but should manifestlyand undoubtedly be seen to be done.” The statement marks an inherent performative andaffective attribute of justice to be considered as cultural justice. The sense of justice lies inthe embodied acts that have to be performed but that also has to be felt at the corporeallevel. One part of justice is a performative that appears in the rhetorical language of thejudiciary and its ritualised action. Dwight Conqurgood argued that “all the interlockingrituals of criminal punishment-arrest, detention, interrogation, trial, conviction,incarceration, execution—are performed so that citizens can see “justice done” (2002: 343).The second part of justice lies in affect, in the feeling that carries the sensible andtherapeutic aspect of justice. If the injustice lies in the bone, the feeling of justice shouldenter into the guts and veins. It should heal the cut marks on the skin. It should touch theinner being and feel sensation. Though both the performative and the affective forms cannotbe separated in the act and reception of justice, they are not the same.

Cultural justice recognises that the practice of fundamental human capacity is a culturalright of every citizen. It underlines that justice itself has to be sensitised in its body, actionand pronouncement. Cultural justice is often subsumed under social justice as both dealwith questions of power, inequality and hegemony. Cultural justice, however, offers a moreprecise lens through which to consider the cultural dimensions of injustice’ (Cantillion, et al2021). Furthermore, cultural justice also refers to “doing justice to culture, pursuing justicethrough cultural means, and seeking justice for cultural claims” (Ross 1998: 2). Second, it iscrucial to theorise cultural justice when cultural injustices are increasingly recognised inthe scholarships (Galtung 1990; Bourdieu 1992; Thiong’o 1998; Guru 2011). It exists in


various forms of humiliation, cultural appropriation, cultural violence, cultural genocide,forced assimilation, naming, symbolic violence and in the various others forms of culturalhegemony.[i] Third, a resistance against cultural hegemony also asks to recognise the newforms of cultural productions that are happening in the sphere of culture and spiritualdomains but cannot be captured through an economic and social lens. Beyond, counter-narrative and cultural resistance model, there is a need to see such cultural productions asa new site of cultural justice. It attempts to theorize a broader cultural phenomenon in thefield of art and culture where subaltern communities are seeking to carve a new space toenact justice. The theory of cultural justice would aim to recognise the role of art, aestheticand cultural production for the empowerment and emancipation of citizens andcommunities. That can only happen with the radical constitution of the art and culturalsphere. Fourth, cultural justice would be a conscious attempt to sensitise the dead anddesensitized spheres of the Hindu caste society. A society cannot make a moral claim ofequality and imagine justice when they are desensitised at every level. If savarnasconsolidates their cultural hegemony by perpetuating myths, symbols and culturalassimilation, cultural justice is an act of resisting these processes through cultural means.Last but not the least, while social justice and economic justice are based on equality,cultural justice is based on the recognition of differences and diversity.

Jyotirao Phule can be considered one of the earliest thinkers of cultural justice byrecognising the cultural basis of Aryan supremacy and Brahminical hegemony. The questionis not that whether Aryan and non-Aryan history exist or not, As it pointed out by GailOmvedt (1971: 1975), “the purpose of this interpretation was not so much to provide a fullhistory of India,” the purpose was “to establish a cultural and racial basis for the unity of thenon-Brahmin masses.” Similarly, Bali raja was an attempt to create a positive history for theagricultural communities. His discourse becomes relevant to understanding the culturalproduction of subaltern communities. In the history of denigration and silences, culturaljustice is projected to create a positive history for the future.

Theorisation of cultural justice necessarily needs to underline the field of cultural injusticesin the specific contexts as a culture always makes a particular claim; even violence is alsoperpetuated keeping culture in mind. In this regard, Nancy Fraser (1995) describes culturalinjustices rooted in social patterns of representation, interpretation, and communication.She gives an example of cultural domination (being subjected to patterns of interpretationand communication that are associated with another culture and are alien and/or hostile toone’s own), nonrecognition (being rendered invisible via the authoritative representational,communicative, and interpretative practices of one’s culture), and disrespect (beingroutinely maligned or disparaged in stereotypic public cultural representations and/or ineveryday life interactions). Fraser’s scope of injustices needs to be expanded in the Indiancontext where specific sorts of violence are practised. But cultural justice is not only aboutcreating a counter-discourse against the prevalent forms of cultural injustices, though this is


an important step. Cultural justice is also a movement for a new culture and aesthetics, notbased on the hierarchies and sciences of beauty, saundaryashastra but the (re)distributionof the sensible and emancipation of the senses, nyaysamvedna (justice of the senses). Itaims to change the very canons of art and the discourses of aesthetics. The aim is not todiscard the works done in the field of social justice, economic justice or political justice,rather the aim is to expand the notion of justice. At this point, cultural justice makes afoundational claim that a theory of culture has to be the core of any theory of oppressionand hierarchy. Unless we do not recognise this factor, we will keep undermining thesensibilities that justice can engender for potential human capacities.

In Real Love, Andrew Ross suggests that cultural justice refers to “doing justice to culture,pursuing justice through cultural means, and seeking justice for cultural claims”. TakingRoss three considerations, I would like to discuss the epic performances based on PhoolanDevi: First, how epic performances does justice to narrative and culture (or offers narrativejustice). Second, how it does justice through cultural means and how does it seek justice forsocial, cultural and political claims. In brief, this article presents three accounts of justice: i)in relation to the memory, ii) How affective narrative of the plot offers a sense of justice toboth songs and participants iii) This also shows how social emotions fundamentally organizeand orient our stories. Unlike political parties and popular media, the performers play adifferent role. But before I move further, I should provide a background.

The Battleground

The upcoming assembly election in UP is taking a cultural turn in which all political partiesand caste organisations are trying to find their heroes and histories to make representationin democracy. With Nishad (Mallah) voters in mind, Phoolan Devi has emerged as a crucialbut contentious figure of this politics of cultural appropriation. Therefore, when VikassheelInsaan Party (VIP) and Samajwadi Party announced that they are going to instal the statueof Phoolan Devi across UP, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went to stall that move.The VIP and the SP move could have easily established Phoolan Devi in the politicalpantheon of Indian democracy with other figures, such as Jhansi ki Rani and Jhalkari Bai.Seeing the legend of Phoolan Devi, this cannot be stopped for a long time. And sooner orlater, Devi is going to be unveiled as an iconic figure in Indian politics. She does not fit intothe narrative of the BJP, which would rather prefer to project king Nishad Guh from theRamayana. In the popular image, Nishadraja can be seen washing the feet of king Ramawhich can be seen as a denigrated representation of Nishada in the contemporarydiscourse. In another image, he can be also seen necking with Rama, showing love andfriendship. The BJP wants to show that as Nishad king Guha stands for the Ramarajya, theNishad community should be standing in the BJP’s mission for Ramarajya. This


appropriation has already paid its cultural currency to the BJP.

The appropriation of Phoolan Devi is also challenging in comparison to the previouscommunities heroes whose stories were largely based on the mythical narrative of a rulingkings and queens who lost the power for the moral duty. It is that moral sacrifice thatbecomes the site of political claims. The previous icons also had a long history (whether it isKing Suheldev, King Mihir Bhoj, and King Maharana Pratap or Rani Laxmi Bai) incomparison to Phoolan. There are also several dedicated statues for many mythicalhistorical figures and political leaders representing the interest of particular castes andcommunities, however, they cannot said to be that epical or influential. The epical statureof Phoolan Devi embodied in the gruesome story of her life and struggle, imbued in folkheroism, mystified with her mythical power make her as much power as other figures of thepast. She has become part of the folk cultural memory. “Have you become Phoolan Devi,”male members in north India taunt women and girls when they try to assert their powers.No other figure in recent history can match that epical embodiment of Phoolan Devi.Though she emerged as a legend in her own lifetime but to live the legend in people’smemory her afterlife must be performed. This is done by epic singers at the local level.These singers carry the memory of Phoolan Devi and offer narrative justice to her.

There exist a number of studies on the representation of Phoolan Devi in popular culture(Ghosh 2011; Caldwell 2004). One of the most popular of this representation was the BanditQueen. The film is a dramatised interpretation of Phoolan Devi’s biography written by MalaSen. The film was initially censored in India, but it was disseminated to a foreign, Western,market and became a great success. The name Phoolan Devi became much more widelyknown in the West and Western audiences took the film as a representation of Indianwomanhood. The controversial representation of Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur’s BanditQueen has already created an intense discussion around the questions of subaltern agencyand representation. In the view of Leela Fernandes(1999), “the film sparked a contentiousand distinctive debate on the politics of authenticity, agency, authority, and responsibility inthe representation of the “real” life experience and struggle of an individual.” Using apostcolonial lens, some scholars presented Devi as a representation of Indian women inrelation to the question of nation. Some other studies try to show her in the light of devi (inthe lineage of the violent goddess) like Durga and Kali (Ponzanesi 2017). In an importantstudy, Kathryne Hansen tries to locate Devi as virangana between chaste wife and mothergoddess. She discusses how Phoolan’s life has inspired local folk poets and singers and theycomposed her life in nautankis, Brahmasis, Birhas and other folk genres (1988: WS31). Inmany of the media stories and narratives, Devi was presented as a vigilante figure. FromBandit Queen, Dasyu Sundari (Bandit Beauty), Khushwant Singh’s Flower Child of India,Phoolan Devi saw the sensational representation often bereft of her sociality. She became amedia phenomenon, “the object of sensationalistic exaggeration and romanticizationnourished by lack of concreate information” (Hansen WS31). She was either too


romanticised as a revenge figure or simply ridiculed as criminal politician. In the sharplydivided caste and gendered society, Devi, on the one side was portrayed as “an irresistible,insatiable man eater’ with ‘elements of wild beauty, seductiveness and extraordinarydanger,” on the other side she became “a symbol of women’s liberation” and “new woman”beyond the rural and urban divide (Hansen 1988: 32).

Sarita Heer (2014) has analysed the image of Phoolan Devi in fine art (painting print, andmixed media installation)? Heer argues that in each of the different works, the artists,through media and subject, unpack their personal politics regarding the Bandit Queen.Rekha Rodwittiya’s take on Devi situates her within the context of Indian womanhood.Ganesh’s series is about the various interpretations of Phoolan Devi as they tie into heridentity as a queer, South-Asian American. Sandrasegar’s installation considers PhoolanDevi and Indian womanhood as dichotomies that reveal the unstable nature of Indiannationhood. I argue that the fine arts images of Devi reveal how these three artists, fromtheir different perspectives, understand Indian womanhood, hence nationhood. RekhaRodwittiya’s painting, Untitled (Phoolan Devi), 2001 shows the placing of a heart on Devi’schest. The heart contains a representation of Jhansi Ki Rani, the warrior queen. The multiplemythologies that these works present remain far from the community’s representation ofDevi. One is not arguing that epic singers create an ideal representation of Devi. In fact,against the ideal representation of Devi, they create a dynamic representation in which theimage if Phoolan cannot be kept in binary.

I argue that unlike the existing representations of Phoolan Devi in popular media culture,the local singers and performers present Phoolan Devi as an icon of the future. Against anirrational revengeful figure, they are trying to project Devi as a figure of justice. I furtherargue that by doing this, the community is also participating in the therapeutic act ofnarrative and culture justice. If injustice happens at the symbolic and aesthetic level, thennarrative justice is required to play a vital role. It can be argued that the narrativesrecounted by the local epic singers not only offer a model of cultural justice, they alsobecome a vehicle in mobilising alternative social and political discourse. For the localcommunity singers, the stake is bigger. The representation of Devi is ultimately is their ownrepresentation. It is a mirror image of the community. Devi’s image has been continuouslysustained and recreated by the local singers and performers to address the discourse of thetime. In making and unmaking of Phoolan Devi also lies the history-making of thecommunity. In recent years under the influences of larger Dalit Bahujan discourse, Devi’simage has moved beyond the image of virangana and posits a new discourse of justice.

Narrative Justice

I would like to present a short section of those reflections in relation to the narrative and


cultural justice in the epic performances of Phoolan Devi. I briefly discuss the works of AjaySahni, one of the many epic singers who uses alha style of singing to create a narrativejustice for the communities at large. I also consider these singers and bards as memorykeepers who keep the embodied “archives” of the injustices done and justice delivered tothe communities in their repertoire. Sahni’s “Fauladi Phoolan” (The Daring Phoolan) wasproduced by the Akhil Bharatiya Nishad Ekta Manch that also shows the aspiringrepresentation of the community in the larger discourse. In his recounting of the story ofPhoolan Devi, Shahni presents an account of discrimination against women by saying thathow patriarchal society mourns the birth of daughters and celebrate the birth of sons. Healso criticised the society in which women are as an object of consumption. He also narratesother atrocities against women. Then he comes to Phoolan Devi’s story and recounts herbirthplace, proudly naming her parents who gave birth to a woman like Phoolan Devi, healso mentions her caste and poverty-stricken background. By placing Phoolan in the epictradition, the singer challenges the idea of the epic based on the stories of the privileged inwhich heroes come from a noble family. The alha then following its repertoire presents theemblematic projection of her birth. What happened when Phoolan was born? Here is arough translation of the alha, Sahni sings:

Listen to this heart wrenching story of a daughter

It was the night of the 10 August of 1963

In the district of Jalaun, the village is called Ghura ka Purwa

It is in the Uttar Pradesh

The parents were Moola Devi- Devi Din

They belonged to the caste of Mallah

Bind, Sahni, Navik, Manjhi

Kashyap, Kevat and Nishad

Are different names of the caste

In which came the new-born

Everyone joined the celebration

Lighting lighted her home from the sky


The rain came roaring in the Chambal

To welcome her came dancing the cloud members

They danced freely moving in the sky

Shining in dark complexion

She was lovely, she was gorgeous

Listen, listen she was Phoolan

She was the one who showed everyone

That what it means to be a woman

In most of the epic ballads of Phoolan Devi, the singers easily merge history and fantasy. Itcan be also seen as reality and desire. The reality he discusses in the first part and thedesire he showed in the second stanza. This becomes a special technique in which epicalsubjects are formed, not in the negation of the social reality but a parallel social world iscreated in their imaginative praxis. The playfulness works as a catalyst for the community.Shani narrates further:

Coming from the low caste

She performed an extraordinary act

The babusaheb (the upper castes)

who expected a servitude of the low caste

Without any dissent

Were taken back

By the defiant words of Phoolan.

It was a case of mere teasing

And Phoolan, out of expectation

Was rousing, she was in fire.


Phoolan was growing harsh

In the harsh beehad (moor) of Chambal

Tolerating the harsh situation of live

and harassment of everyone

Even at that height

Phoolan has shown them

A courage to fight.

People soon realised that

She is not the other women

She is not going to tolerate anything

She is not going to be afraid of anyone

She was unafraid daughter of the oppressed

In the mix of history and the anecdote, the epic singer soon makes Phoolan as part of thefuture. From recounting of the past, Phoolan became a projection in the future. More thanof the past, it is reconstruction of Phoolan Devi for the future, who will not be afraid ofanyone and will not tolerate any injustice. Then he recounts again:

The injustice with Phoolan begin at home

She was given to three times older Puttilal

The physical pain was unbearable

for the little Phoolan

She kicked her husband

And ran away to home

Listen the breaking nerve of the story

She was abducted by Babu Gurjar


He did not hear the tears of Phoolan

He did the torture unimaginable

Heart of the beehaad cried out

Vikram Mallah could not see the pain

Brutality invited his ire

His rifle started blowing the fire

He killed the Gurjar in the ire

He became the leader of the gang

And added a new leaf in the history

Shattering the caste hierarchy

The fake arrogance of Thakurs was blown in the wind

The loving pair of Phoolan-Vikram was in the scene

This does not go well with many

And Vikram was killed

In their cowardly act.

And the flower (Phoolan) was pelted again

The butchers were standing around again

Phoolan was like fallen cow

But it was not the end

The ordeal was not yet over

She was captured by the gang of Lala Ram and Sri Ram

Both were Thakurs by caste


They have crossed the limits of shame

Ten monsters sexually harassed the deity

In day and night

She was stripped

And made to walk in the village

With Thakurs roaring laugh

Was there not people in the village

Who could have stopped them?

What is the meaning of such Thakurs (Kshatriya)?

Which Thakurina came out to criticize the act

Whose voices not have been heard?

The name of village was Behmai.

One day she was able to run away

She reached the camp of Baba Mushtakin, the great

Lying wounded and pool of blood

He was dacoit with a great soul

He had respect for women

He gave Mansingh Mallah to Phoolan

Under the command of Phoolan

The gang of Phoolan took the arms

She walked wrapped red coffin on her head

And raided the village of Behmai

Where she was raped

She killed 21 Thakurs


Phoolan played the Holi in blood

And turned the Yamuna river red

Her anger and injustice of the years

flooded in the red blood

The blend of anger and revenge

But the regret remain

Lala Rama and Sri Ram escaped

On 14 Feb 1981, the nation and world left shaken

How a woman has taken the arm

Remember! It was world of the men

How could have they tolerated the crime of a woman

Above all, she was the daughter of a Mallah, low caste

This was the reason that

the pain felt was more severe

It was a special pain combined with the caste

Then Sahni goes to narrate her death by some cowards, who killed Phoolan in atreacherous act.

With bullets, Phoolan fell to the ground

The earth took her in the lap and cried out

The sky also cried hundred times

She kept facing the pain from the birth

She again felt the pain in the death

Now he takes a didactic turn and sings,

Phoolan takes birth everyday here


But she does not react

Therefore the atrocities keep rising

Exception like Phoolan comes in hundred centuries

No one should have to become Phoolan and Nirbhaya

No one should suffer such injustices

Let this stories spread across.

In recounting of Sahni what we clearly see is the formation of a cultural justice that seeks toshift representation of gestures, voice, and agency. They are the prominent medias that areoften ignored despite of their popularity and radical intervention in the wider discourse ofthe representation. Second, the singers stance are implicated in the ideology of communityand therefore their treatment of subject remain more sensible than popular media. Once thesensation is over, popular media does not take interest in such image making. For the localcommunity singers, this memory becomes paramount; it cannot be simply closed. Theyremain “suppressed and forced underground at times, but constantly re-emerging intopopular consciousness through memory and celebration” (Hansen 1988: WS32). These localcommunity singers as memory keepers of the community has to perform, otherwise, it canlead to cultural amnesia. They have to perform justice in the songs and narrative, in memoryand history, according to time and space. They have to sustain the memory in everycondition. Therefore, unlike popular culture which harps on the sensationalisation of thestory, local epic singers and performed have a larger stake for themselves. They have tokeep the memory alive, not only against the prevailing social order but also against the hypeof popular culture. It does not mean that community singers and popular culture do notengage with each other but they engage with their own interests and stakes.

Narrative justice lies in the act of narration, in the recounting of the past event to addressthe present; the narrator and the chorus become the judge to deliver them justice. They layout the plot, they ask the matter to their chorus and community members; they show theiranger and empathy, unlike judges who are not supposed to behave in that emotional way. Itis the narrator who infuses justice with their selected words, bodily gestures and posturesand connecting themes. The question that arises is that who gives authority to these epicsingers and performers? In the case of cinema, we can say that it is the moral authority ofthe director, in the case of painting we can say that the artist subjectivity becomes theperusal ground to seek justice, what about these epic singers who might also come fromdifferent caste and gender background. It is ultimately tradition and memory that gives thestoryteller this authority. The narrative teller creates a sense of participation. They take awalk with the community on the landscape so much so that they start speaking from theirbodies and imaginations. The storyteller makes us own the story. Walter Benjamin (2002)succinctly underlines this point in his writing: “A man listening to a story is in the company


of the storyteller.” But one can ask that how this companionship becomes possible.Benjamin will argue that,

Memory creates the chain of tradition which passes a happening on from generation togeneration. It is the Muse-derived element of epic art in a broader sense andencompasses its varieties. In the first place among these is the one practice by thestoryteller. It starts the web which all stories together form in the end. One ties on thenext, as the great story- tellers, particularly the Oriental ones, have always readilyshown (p 98).

As Benjamin will point out that memory does not work as a fact, it works as a chain of truthswhose grains lies everywhere but cannot be located. It is the grain of truths that validateboth the story and epic singer to carry out the story. The story makes reference to historyand promises, it shares the fate of the oppressors and inspires the generations to follow the“good” order. Many times, the narrative discourse bring contradictions too. But this is notthe point. Elsewhere I have argued that the performance practices of subaltern communitiesare full of such contradictions. While contradictions arise from improvisation and theflexible nature of performance, they also represent their sociopolitical locations (Prakash2019: 206).

This narrative discourse needs to be read as an act of radical renunciation. One of themeanings Geral Genett (1983:26) proposes in about narrative is that it is an event that isrecounted. Narrative discourse depends on that action of telling. He says that narrativediscourse is produced by the action of telling in the same way that any statement is theproduct of an act of enunciation (p 26). He presents three frameworks to look into thediscourse: in relation to tense, time of the story and time of the discourse. In this case onecan ask when was the time of the story, this can be located in history but this also showsthat time of the discourse is a reworking of that story. In other words, they are not narratingthe story, in their act of recounting, they are presenting a new discourse. In some of the oldalhas and birahas, Phoolan Devi is treated very much like a bandit. That elements remain inthe presentations of birha singer Haidar Ali “Jugnu” and Om Prakash Yadav. But in thechanging discourses, the epic singers have not only recreated new Phoolan based on theDalit-Bahujan discourses, they have also expanded the discourses. Genett also talks aboutthe narrative discourse in relation to aspect, the way story is perceived by the narrator.How does a narrator perceive a story? It will depend on the social location and ideologicalposition of the narrator, however, one of the most vital parts of this perception gets shapedby the emotional system. In this regard, P.C. (2011:1) Hogan has argued that “storystructures are fundamentally shaped and oriented by our emotion systems.” His argumentscan be extended further to say that narratives are socially experienced bond. But within theemotion systems, the narrative can unfold in different ways as the narratives can “motivateus to sustain or change the situation by making us experience the situation as desirable oraversive” (Hogan 2011: 3). While emotions are socially bond the narrative can go beyondthe “socially-determined” situation to produce a new possibility. Genett has discussed


another important point in relation to the mood of the narrative (p 29). It has to be pointedout that not all genres can take all kinds of moods. The story in its structure carries a mood.This also becomes reason that unlike other folk genres, the alha and birha carry thenarrative discourse of Phoolan better than other genres.

The performance of the epic narrative distributes justice in symbolic, gesture and narrativeterms. The stories in most the case are troubled. The question of justice becomes animportant marker and the basis of the moral discourse. Here, the focus is not on therestoration of the dead victim. In Hogan words’ “It is, rather, on the actual restoration ofprocesses that should assure justice throughout the foreseeable future”. This is what epicsingers do here. Their focus are largely on the situations and processes that created thevictim. By saying that no one has to become Phoolan Devi to seek justice, the singers wantto assure justice throughout the foreseeable future. This is not a passive acceptance but aradical foreclosing of the injustice done.

Gestus of the Justice

Judges slamming down their gravels on the desk are typical imaginations of the courtroomin India. It is the symbol of authority and the power of the judgeship. Hammer is used topunctuate a decision or signing a request. The alha and birha singers use their powerfulgestures to make truth claims. In Fiction of Authority, Susan Lanser (1992) asks us to movebeyond plot and content issues towards narrative aspects of the technique. We need to alsosee how these issues are presented narratively. In the epic singing of Devi, the narrativebrings the body in active gestural forms. The performers punctuate truth and justicethrough pause, silence, noise and postures. In the epic imagination, Phoolan Devi very muchappears against the figure of the idealised woman. Justice is also about how does justicelook like? How does it (she) speak? Is she blindfolded like Lady Justice symbolising GoddessJustitia from the Roman tradition or justice looks like Manu standing in front of theRajasthan High Court carrying the Hindu Law book in his hand and giving stern warningthrough his gestures?

Alha and birha performers gesticulate their songs and actions using lots of hands, body andfacial movements. Music also gesticulates the action in which one can hear the sound ofhorse neighing, gunfights and sounds of violence. Though the level of gesticulationsdepends on region to region. Alha singing and musical compositions differ from region toregion. In some places only one singer play and perform. In the Bundelkhand region, oneman alone sings and play dholak accompanied by another man on manjira. In the Awadhiregion, alha is sung with 4-5 accompanied musicians who also work as a chorus. If the mainsingers gesticulate the action, the musicians and chorus gesticulate the music. In theBhojpuri region, the singer can be surrounded of a strong team of cymbal players whopunctuate the music with a powerful sound. In many places, for example in the area ofMathura bowed string instrument, Chikara is used which itself becomes a powerfulinstrument to gesticulate the actions and attitudes in the performance (See Babu Ram


Singh’s performance for reference). This action can be closely, if not the same, understoodfrom what German playwright and theatre thinker, Bertolt Brecht terms as gestus. Thegestus in simple words can be understood as a combination of gestures and attitudes. Butthis would not be enough. It was Brecht’s one of the key aesthetic terms and one of severalstrategies for epicisation, interpretation and reception. He will insist on gestic language ofpoetry, theatre and music. As we are discussing in the context of epic performance, Brechtwould say that actors should interpret gestic materials of fable (narrative). Epicperformance in the sense becomes all gestic activities. The gestus also manifests in the waythe poet and singer refer to antiquity (history) and to the audience, the way it employs boththe gestures and attitudes in a performance. In Brecht’s view, “history offers a parallel, butno model”; using the history, epic singer and performer warns against “the dangers anddownfalls of previous classes and societies—urging his audiences to take warning fromthem” (Varopoulou 1999:62). Therefore, singers use gestures in relation to a distancedsocial situation. Phoolan Devi’s suffering is the name of the social situation in which singersare part, not part of, therefore, he is in a position to comment on that situation. I am nottrying to say that epic singers of Phoolan Devi epitomise the Brechtian principles of gestus.Gestus here rather becomes principles to understand that movement.

When alha and birha singers sing, they draw their voices from their base. One can see theirnerve are visibly tensed, the blood boils in the veins and body becoming vessel. They oftensing with a full-throated voice. It appears they are speaking from the site of battle,completely immersed into the scene. But soon they will turn to their social commentary andwill relate the fable with the present. They sing from the body and blood gesturing theirwhole body. They beat their chest and ask the question, whether that village did not haveany male members who could have stopped the Thakurs. What did happen to Thakurines?Whose voices could not be heard? The questions create the landmark with musical punction.With shock, sensation, rawness, the performers and participants make an exchange throughwhole body and limbs. The performers will sneer, roll their eyes, furrow their brow andmake their nostril and ear flare. With the musical instruments imitation, the noise ofneighing of a horse, the gunfight, the roaring of the cloud, falling of the sky, what we see ismusic gestus. They make proclamations, they show defiance through their gestus. Thoughthese expressions differ from region to region, however the gestus remain one of the majorperformative languages of alha and birha. Unlike their patriarchal depictions in which maleand Rajput caste valour are presented in alha and birha stories, the coming of Phoolan Devialso challenges the existing gestures. New performers have to create a new gesture toincorporate the new discourse. These changes are visible in the gestus of justice producedby the new singers. Their movements are getting less masculinised in comparison totraditional singers. The traditional narrative used to present every episode as ladai but thisdoes not seem to remain the case.

Conclusion

There are many ways to think about the formation of cultural justice, from an act of justice


itself as a performative act with its rhetorical and gestural languages in the courtroom tothe (re)distribution of sensible at the corporeal and sensorial level. Thinking through theframework of cultural justice, I have tried to show how local epic performers present a caseof such justice by providing a narrative discourse. Though cinema and other media can alsosaid to present a case of narrative justice the epic narratives remain different in its bodyand immediacy. The recounting of Phoolan Devi is not a case of what Eric Hobsbawm (1971;1972) has termed as “social banditry”. In narrative recounting she is not presented as dacoitwho is attacking the village and the city like Robinhood. In a different context, Will Wright(1975: 195), points out, that the heroic outlaw is a legendary figure grounded in myth morethan in reality and politics. Tales of outlaws may appeal to an audience because of thedramatic elements embedded in the stories. There is no doubt that this could have beenseen earlier when local alha and nautanki performers started composing their performanceon Devi. But this does not seem to be a case now. However, this can be indeed said thatDevi has also acquired the power of myth which makes her character multivocal, anessential quality to make the person epical.

Her every act presented in the narrative discourse is a discourse of women, caste andpatriarchal society. In the new discourse, Phoolan Devi is getting projected as a figure ofjustice or as a Justice Queen unlike her revengeful and reductionist image of bloody revengeseeker. A different notion of justice is also invoked in her embracing Buddhism in 1995 atDeeksha Bhoomi, following the path of Baba Saheb Ambedkar and representing her peoplein Parliament, a Phoolan Devi, not with anger and taunting gun, but with a smile, a positiveand confident Phoolan standing like a leader of social and cultural justice.

https://www.epw.in/caste-and-representation-prominent-forms-culture


End Notes:

[i] While cultural genocide is an attempt to destroy culture of the indigenous population,cultural violence tries to legitimise violence in its direct and structural forms.

References:

References

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YouTube links the epic songs on the life of Phoolan Devi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNW4C3iaqjg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNW4C3iaqjg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ7EkXOY_hs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nsh-qAJjn0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ7EkXOY_hs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nsh-qAJjn0

Narrative Justice for Phoolan Devi in Epic Recounting

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