In February 2024 the Calcutta High Court ordered the change of the name of a lioness in the Siliguri Safari Park named ‘Sita’. Some organizations had objected to Sita being housed with a lion named ‘Akbar’. In India today even lions are subject to the same pressures that Hindu-Muslims couples are and cannot escape the political discourse around love desire sexuality and marriage. The fear and disgust about alliances between Hindu women and Muslim men is expressed in one short term—‘love jihad’ a
