Phoolan Devi was born on August 10, 1963, in a small village called Gorha Ka Purwa in the Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh, India. Her family belonged to the Mallah subcaste, which is near the bottom of the Hindu caste system. They were poor and relied on farming for their livelihood. Phoolan had four sisters and one brother. The family grew crops like chickpeas and sunflowers and made dung cakes that they used as fuel, a common practice in their region.

Phoolan's father, Devidin, lost land to his own brother, Biharilal, who bribed the village leader to change the land records. This led Phoolan's family to live on the edge of the village, where they faced harassment and theft from their relatives. When Phoolan was just ten years old, she protested against these injustices with her sister Rukhmini by sitting on the disputed land and eating the chickpeas there. This act led to her being beaten into unconsciousness by her cousin Maiyadin, and her family was also punished.

To secure her future, Phoolan's parents arranged a marriage for her when she was very young. She married a man named Puttilal, who was three times her age. Though it was agreed she would live with him later, Puttilal took her away just three months after their marriage. Phoolan resisted his advances, fell sick, and eventually returned home, only to be pressured by her family to return to Puttilal. After years of mistreatment from him and an eventual abandonment, she moved back to her parental home.

In 1979, her cousin Maiyadin caused more trouble by destroying their crops. When Phoolan tried to defend her family's land, she was arrested and detained for a month. During this time, she stated that she suffered abuse at the hands of the police. 

In July 1979, a gang of bandits led by Babu Gujjar kidnapped Phoolan Devi from her family’s home. Gujjar took her as his possession and sexually assaulted her. Vikram Mallah, who was second in command, objected to this treatment and killed Gujjar. He then became the leader of the gang and trained Phoolan to use a rifle. As time passed, the two fell in love. The gang began robbing vehicles and looting villages of higher castes while disguising themselves as police.

A power struggle within the gang led to the murder of Vikram Mallah by former gang leader Sri Ram Singh. After this, Phoolan became a prisoner of Sri Ram, who took her to the village of Behmai where she was repeatedly raped by men of higher castes. In a show of defiance, Phoolan managed to escape and formed a new gang with a bandit named Man Singh.

On February 14, 1981, Phoolan and her gang returned to Behmai. They demanded the villagers hand over Sri Ram Singh and his brother. When the men could not be found, Phoolan's gang lined up twenty-two men by the river and shot them from behind, resulting in twenty deaths. The incident sparked outrage among the Thakur community, leading to political pressure for her capture.

After the Behmai massacre, Phoolan remained on the run. Police attempted to apprehend her, and her mother was held to force her to surrender. In 1983, after long negotiations, Phoolan turned herself in while dressed in a police uniform. She surrendered with conditions that included no death penalty for her gang members and a reasonable imprisonment duration.

Phoolan faced 48 criminal charges and was held in Gwalior prison for over ten years. During her incarceration, she suffered health issues, including tuberculosis and underwent an unwanted medical procedure. In 1994, her charges were dropped, and she transitioned to a political career, winning a seat in the Lok Sabha in 1996.

On July 25, 2001, Phoolan Devi was assassinated outside her home in New Delhi. She was shot nine times by three unidentified gunmen. Her bodyguard was also injured but managed to return fire. Despite being rushed to the hospital, she was pronounced dead on arrival. Following her death, a man named Sher Singh Rana surrendered, claiming the murder was revenge for the Behmai massacre. Rana was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the assassination.