True story: In Phoolan Devi and Kusma Nain’s stories, a combustible mix of jealousy and betrayal

Vikram Mallah and Babu Gujjar made an odd pair.

Babu Gujjar was a thick-boned, well-muscled man over six feet tall with a large bulbous nose. Sharp crocodile-like teeth sprang forth when he opened his mouth, ready to bite and chew big chunks of flesh. His flowing, shaggy beard often stowed away twigs and little dead leaves of stunted kikar trees in its undergrowth. The hair on his head was equally unruly – it fell in a tangled mess on his forehead, got into his eyes, and billowed around his shoulders with the breeze. Whenever the air around him turned unusually frisky, Babu Gujjar tied a bandana around his head.

The bandana forced attention to his bulging eyes. One was pitch black, while the other was murky white. He had lost his left eye to a childhood injury and was therefore known as Kana Dacait. An obnoxious pall of body odour thickly wrapped itself around him, too.

Babu was a gujjar by caste, hence the Gujjar after his first name. The gujjars, once a nomadic pastoralist community, were historically viewed as marauders. Most of them now scrape through life by selling dairy products to fellow villagers. Although they weren’t from the untouchable castes, they...

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