Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Phoolan Devi

Phoolan Devi[edit]

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Phoolan Devi (1963–2001), popularly known as the Bandit Queen, was an Indian dacoit (bandit) who later became a politician. She was a woman of the Mallah subcaste who grew up in poverty in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where her parents lost a land dispute. After being married off at the age of eleven and being sexually abused by various people, she joined a gang of dacoits which robbed higher-caste villages and held up trains and vehicles. When she became its leader, she punished her rapists and evaded capture by the authorities, making her a heroine for the Other Backward Classes. She was charged in absentia for the 1981 Behmai massacre, in which twenty Thakur men were executed, allegedly on her command. After this event, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh resigned, and calls to apprehend her were amplified. She surrendered two years later and spent eleven years in Gwalior prison awaiting trial, then was released in 1994 after her charges were set aside. She was subsequently elected as a member of parliament for the Samajwadi Party in 1996. She lost her seat in 1998 and regained it the following year; she was the incumbent in 2001, when she was assassinated outside her home in New Delhi. Her worldwide fame had grown after the release of the controversial 1994 film Bandit Queen, which she did not approve of. There are varying accounts of her life because she told differing versions to suit her changing circumstances. (Full article...)

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Main editors: Mujinga
Promoted: November 18, 2023
Reasons for nomination: Marks date of death
Support as nominator. Mujinga (talk) 20:52, 9 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Mujinga: this has 1,440 characters, wayyyyy above the recommended limit, which is between 925 and 1025 characters. Reduce this. 750 h+ 08:01, 11 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

the word count is higher because there's no picture Mujinga (talk) 10:03, 11 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

ok, based on that then i'll support. 750 h+ 06:46, 12 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For image, ideally we'd like the person, but it appears copyrighted. But how about the image of Seema Biswas portraying her in the film Bandit Queen instead? It's an actress portraying that person so it's better than nothing. Harizotoh9 (talk) 04:59, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes the image on the article is fair use only. I considered the Biswas pic but personally I'd rather have no pic. Mujinga (talk) 11:50, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Gog the Mild (talk) 16:28, 31 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Mujinga: Two problems: lack of an image (any image that will keep the Main Page people happy would work for me, it doesn't have to be an image of her), and we don't usually do death anniversaries at TFA. This is a hard call for me, but if there's no image, that makes it an easy call. - Dank (push to talk) 22:38, 2 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Dank thanks for the message - I didn't know death anniversaries weren't a thing and to be honest I'm not really into marking dates anyway so I'd be fine with another date (I went for July 25 because people at TFA seem in my experience to prefer a date with resonance, if there's any actual guidance on this I'd love to read it). Or we could go to August 10 her brith date if that's better? On the image, I'd like to push back a bit since this was not an issue with for example Olive Morris at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 16, 2022, I don't think it even came up. It's a reflection of systemic bias that we do not have many free to use photographs of women from the majority world, particularly working class / underclass one, so I'm not interested to include a photo just for the sake of a photo and it was hard enough trying to illustrate the article at all. Having said all that, I could ask around (again) at some relevant wikiprojects. Mujinga (talk) 10:16, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Try also asking at Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Requests Gog the Mild (talk) 13:00, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just read this ... I agree about systemic bias being a problem. Gog will be scheduling August and has agreed to take a look at this one for next month. I can tick off several boxes at the same time here (summer film, balance, etc.) by running Nil Battey Sannata ... I was involved a bit when that made it through FAC back in 2017. I hope you like that article as much as I did. - Dank (push to talk) 12:28, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Fine by me, thanks both! Mujinga (talk) 20:03, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]