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Chie Inudō Launches Manga Seemingly Inspired by Indian Political Figure and 'Bandit Queen' Phoolan Devi

Manga creator Chie Inudō announced on her Instagram account on August 9 that she is launching a manga set in 1980's India. Inudō's Ōkami yo, Furuete Nemure (O Wolf, Tremble and Sleep) manga launched in the 117th issue of Kadokawa's Harta magazine on September 13.

The manga's story follows Maya, an undercover cop who infiltrates a group of bandits, and a bandit named Kareena who seeks revenge for the death of her husband. Inudō's depiction of Kareena as a revenge-motivated bandit in police's khakis sporting a bandoleer is reminiscent of bandit-turned-politician Phoolan Devi.

This would be far from the first time that Phoolan Devi has become the subject of a work of fiction. She became a household name across India with the release of the 1994 Bandit Queen film and has had several other works, both fiction and non-fiction, based on her life including a French graphic novel titled Phoolan Devi, Rebel Queen by Claire Fauvel. A figure from the marginalized Mallah caste of India and victim of child marriage, she was elected as a member of Lok Sabha twice in her political career and spoke of wanting to improve infrastructure in villages and end the practice of child marriages across the country.

Phoolan Devi herself, however, tried to barre the Bandit Queen film's Indian release, going so far as to threaten self-immolation in front of the Censor Board's office. In a 1996 interview with The Atlantic, she asked "How can they say 'This is a true story' when my cousin Maiyadin, the major nemesis of my life, isn't even in the film?" She went on to state "There's absolutely no mention of my family's land dispute. In the film I'm portrayed as a sniveling woman, always in tears, who never took a conscious decision in her life. I'm simply shown as being raped, over and over again." Political activist and novelist Arundhati Roy in her 1994 essay criticizing the film stated that Phoolan Devi is "only a version of herself. There are other versions of her that are jostling for attention."

Harta describes Ōkami yo, Furuete Nemure as a story of two women from different social classes in a world governed by a caste system. Indian creators often have to resort to self-censorship when depicting social injustices involving caste discrimination, and foreign media depicting Indian society can't be expected to have a nuanced understanding of such uniquely Indian issues. Despite that, Japanese media is one the few that has creators who haven't shied away from depicting sensitive social issues such as caste when portraying Indian characters. Yana Toboso's Black Butler is one of the more popular examples of manga and anime that have done so in one of its earliest arcs. While it is yet to be seen whether Inudō's manga will have an honest portrayal of social inequality and women's issues in India, the seinen manga's female-centric approach as well as the author's comments about the work have netizens hoping that it will do so and then some.

Inudō mentioned on her socials that this will be the first long-form work that she has published in a while. She also added that she created Ōkami yo, Furuete Nemure with the "Western" cowboy genre in mind, but set in India. In a blog post on September 14 she stated as for her other inspirations, she watched Indian bandit movies such as Paan Singh Tomal and Sonchiriya. She also mentioned Indian Netflix titles SHE and Darlings, as well as titles such as RRR and 3 Idiots that were commercial successes in Japan.

Inudō launched her Aoi Horus no Hitomi manga in Harta in December 2014. It ran for 40 chapters and ended in April 2021.

Sources: Chie Inudō's Instagram account, Harta's website

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