Title & author
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Synopsis
In Parini Shroff’s The Bandit Queens, a group of women decide to determine justice—its definition, victims, and consequences—in their small community. Balanced with satire and dark humor, the novel critiques society’s corrupt justice system which ultimately continues to benefit those in power.
Who should read this book
Fans of Olga Dies Dreaming and Detransition, Baby
What we’re thinking about
Satire as a way to address (and in a way combat) critical societal issues
Trigger warning(s)
Physical violence, sexual violence, substance abuse, sexism, classism, fatphobia, homophobia, murder
In Parini Shroff’s The Bandit Queens (Ballantine Books, 2023), a group of women decide to determine justice—its definition, victims, and consequences—in their small community. Balanced with satire and dark humor, the novel critiques society’s corrupt justice system which ultimately continues to benefit those in power.
Drawing solace from the stories of Phoolan Mallah, a woman known as the Bandit Queen who escaped from and then punished her sexual abusers, Geeta lives in her remote village in India alone after her husband disappears. Despite the community believing her to have killed him, Geeta knows the truth: that she did no such thing, and that he was both physically and emotionally abusive. With a photograph of the Bandit Queen taped above her workspace, Geeta remembers that “if she was indeed ‘mixed with dirt,’” like people in her village claim, “then at least she was in fine company” (Shroff, 16). Then, five years after his disappearance, Geeta is approached by several women to help kill their own abusive husbands.
“‘Sure, you’re not supposed to kill, but you’re not supposed to rape either, okay?...When someone threatens your body, you have every right to protect yourself,’” Geeta’s once friend Saloni says (195). The women in the story no longer possess trust in their society’s system, instead being “‘built to endure the rules men make’” (195). And for these women who are dealing with abusive husbands, enduring means taking action to protect themselves, their children, and other women in the town. “She thought of entitlement and vulnerability, shame and lechery, justice and inequity, and she thought of how only half of these were available to her gender. She thought of how much she hated male cowardice and the way they all protected each other and get away with it every time. So, no, then. Geeta did not react. She decided” (327). If the structure upholding those in power and the power upholding the justice system are both corrupt, benefiting those that commit harm, how can we rely on it? In The Bandit Queens, we can’t.
What is justice? Even Geeta challenges the women when they come to her, claiming that they aren’t “‘the Bandit Queen [so] that you can run around killing men as you please’” (11). But then what and who determine who can be the bearer of justice? The Bandit Queens forces readers to reevaluate our understanding of justice and its implied safety. It makes us question what systems we rely on and whom they actually benefit. “For me,” Shroff writes in the Author’s Note, “fiction is when research meets compassion; I believe this is often why facts don’t change people’s minds, but stories do.” When people around the globe—anyone from civilians in Palestine to those escaping sexual assault in the States—rise up to protect themselves from the people and systems in place attempting to oppress them, is that violence weighed the same as the acts committed by those in and with power? The Bandit Queens argues no.
“It was preferable, she found, mentioning Ramesh as a footnote rather than the thesis.”
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How did Shroff’s use of satire and dark humor impact your reading of the story?
A large theme in the story is the importance of community and a support network. In what way do the flaws of each women—such as Geeta’s stubbornness or Saloni’s vanity—end up strengthening their relationships in the end?
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