The Bandit Queens

Parini Shroff’s debut novel, The Bandit Queens, proffers a rollicking tale of murder and mayhem, laced with acerbic humor and astute social observations. Published in 2023, the book follows the exploits of Geeta, the village outcast thought to have murdered her husband, Ramesh. Geeta herself knows that she did not kill him, but she relies on those rumors to keep others at arm’s length—except, perhaps, for the handsome widower, Karem. However, her reputation precedes her; soon, other women want Geeta’s help in dispatching their troublesome husbands, and shenanigans ensue. All the women bemoan the inequality that runs rampant throughout Indian society and keeps women of low caste subservient and silent, even in the face of the pervasive violence. Geeta often looks to the example of the Bandit Queen, an actual historical figure whose legendary adventures include exacting vengeance on the many men who wronged her. As the tale unfolds, Geeta’s own growing band of women forge bonds with one another in complex and contradictory ways along their journey.

This guide refers to the 2023 Ballantine Books edition.

Content Warning: The novel contains depictions of sexual assault, scenes of violence and murder, and references to alcohol addiction.

Plot Summary

Five years ago, Geeta’s husband, Ramesh, disappeared from the small Indian village in which they made their home. Now, many of the villagers still believe that Geeta may have murdered him, especially given the abuse she used to suffer at his hands. Since Ramesh’s disappearance, Geeta has managed to join a microloan group, start her own small business making wedding jewelry, and embrace her solitary life—even if she does often feel the sting of loneliness. As she sees it, “It was true she no longer had friends, but she did have freedom” (6). Geeta thrives in the absence of her abusive husband, who was also addicted to alcohol.

Her life, however, is disrupted when one of the women in her loan group, Farah, fails to attend their weekly meeting. Geeta offers to cover Farah’s share of the repayment. The young Muslim woman shows up on Geeta’s doorstep later that day, her face covered in fresh bruises meted out by her husband, Samir. Farah has heard the rumors about Geeta and asks her to help make Farah a widow. Farah wants to dispatch her own abusive husband. At first, Geeta refuses; she knows that she is no murderer. But when she overhears Samir at the market, threatening to steal Geeta’s money in order to pay his liquor debts, she agrees to assist Farah, for she refuses to sacrifice all that she has worked so hard to accumulate.

Their plan is successful, and Farah can hardly pretend to mourn. Geeta, however, is awash with guilt, and she is worried that they will be caught. Farah refuses to entertain such thoughts and uses blackmail to keep Geeta in line, suggesting that if they are arrested, Geeta will be punished more severely, for she is now a serial killer of husbands. Farah also attempts to extort money from Geeta, as she misses the income provided by Samir. Geeta finally turns to her former friend, Saloni, for advice and assistance. The two were once very close, but Geeta’s problematic marriage to Ramesh caused a rift.

Saloni tells Geeta that one of their mutual friends, Preity, has seen Ramesh in the town of Kohra. If they are able to produce evidence that Geeta did not kill her husband, then she can extricate herself from Farah’s blackmail. There is one catch, however: Preity also wants Geeta’s assistance in killing her own husband, Darshan. While he is now a devoted and loving partner, he once threw acid in Preity’s face, thinking it was her twin sister, Priya, who had rejected him. Preity lives each day with the scars and trauma of the attack.

Geeta agrees to the plan, only to back out at the last minute. She switches the plate of poisoned food with her own, then heads toward the bathroom to find something in which to hide the tainted food. Darshan surprises her in the hallway, assaulting and choking her. He also intends to sexually assault Geeta. She smashes a decorative statue against Darshan’s temple, and he crumples to the ground, dead. The women must establish alibis in order to protect themselves. While Geeta and Saloni are later interviewed by the police, they are not taken seriously and are quickly released. It also turns out that Preity was lying about having spotted Ramesh.

Nevertheless, Geeta does not have to wait long to be reunited, albeit with great reluctance, with her husband. Ramesh shows up at her doorstep repentantly, blind from drinking polluted alcohol; he also claims to have quit drinking. Geeta eventually takes him back into her home and falls into old patterns as the past trauma of abuse robs her of her present sense of agency. Saloni, however, refuses to accept Ramesh’s word, and she confronts Geeta after Geeta declares her intention to leave the microloan group. When Geeta retrieves her savings box in order to pay off the rest of her loan, she notices that thousands of rupees are missing. In addition, the contents of the bottle of rum that Saloni has gifted Geeta has been replaced with water; Ramesh has been lying to Geeta about the drinking, and he has also been stealing money from her.

Geeta learns that Ramesh has been working for Bada-Bhai, a small-time gangster who traffics in illegal liquor. Geeta previously encountered the man on a trip to Kohra with Karem, the local liquor distributor—on whom Geeta nurses a crush. When she discovers that Bada-Bhai has been testing tainted alcohol on dogs, she frees the animals, taking one of them with her and naming it Bandit. Geeta now decides to kill Ramesh. She and Saloni hatch a plot to murder him during the celebration of Diwali.

At the party, Karem approaches Geeta with his suspicions about Ramesh. It suddenly dawns on her that he has also been lying about his blindness. She rushes back to her house to find Saloni tied and gagged, with Bada-Bhai and Ramesh standing guard. Geeta herself is quickly tied up, and Bada-Bhai proposes to feed her tainted alcohol since she has cost him his dogs. When Farah also shows up, wanting to repair her friendship with Geeta, she too is caught in the chaos, along with another acquaintance of Geeta’s, the Dalit woman, Khushi. Bada-Bhai is overwhelmed by the assortment of women on his hands. They cajole him into letting them go promising to claim that the incident is a domestic dispute and to leave his name out of it. Ramesh, however, is having none of the deal and Geeta is forced to shoot him. He does not die, but the women get rid of Bada-Bhai and Geeta gets her divorce.

Throughout the novel, Geeta recalls the life and legend of Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen. Geeta admires the woman’s courage and capacity for vengeance, especially within such an entrenched patriarchal society. Geeta herself, along with her gang of “bandit queens,” form an exclusive group of “wives who’d prefer to be widows” (323). Geeta not only secures the freedom to construct the contours of her own life, but she also recovers enough money to buy herself a long-desired refrigerator.