Arundhati Roy, in The God of Small Things, wrote, “They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much.” Actor Sheezan Khan, too, ventured into forbidden territory by having a relationship with Tunisha Sharma. But Sheezan did not love her enough to marry her—and called off the relationship. The breakup prompted Tunisha to commit suicide, alleges her mother. Sheezan is now in jail.

A Muslim loving a Hindu, whether too much or too little, has become perilous in Hindutva’s India. Assuming Sheezan had married Tunisha, he would have been accused of love jihad, a charge still flung at him, after the suicide of Tunisha, by Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan. Roy’s guide to love needs updating, for her novel spoke of the “Love Laws” of the 1960s India.