Sampat Pal Devi, gang leader, she fights for the Indians!

What do you think of when you disembark almost directly from a rural bled in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, in Deauville, a seaside resort in Normandy?What do you think of when you find yourself in a saree among some of the most influential women in Armani suits on the planet? Mystery. Still, Sampat Pal Devi, a 47-year-old Indian who made the trip last weekend to take part in the Women's Forum*, is not one to be daunted. Social inequalities, the acquired advantages of some and the humiliation of others, she knows: it is the fight of her life. This cat-eyed woman – a sign of cunning in India – presents herself not as a social worker, let alone an NGO leader, but simply as a gang leader. And his Gulabi Gang ("Pink Gang") is becoming legendary: it is formed by hundreds of women from the lower castes of Uttar Pradesh, one of the poorest states in the country, all dressed in neon pink sari. 

Charismatic and stubborn, Sampat Pal Devi mobilizes her army of pacifist vigilantes around noble causes: domestic violence (which affects 40% of Indian women), the widespread corruption of village chiefs, police, social workers and government intermediaries, institutionalized humiliation low castes, the ambient machismo that means that a woman who has no dowry, who only gives birth to daughters or who has the misfortune to displease her in-laws finds herself on the street without recourse.