Under a Saffron Sky by Ismat Ara examines how ‘love jihad’ transformed love, marriage and identity into sites of fear and conflict in India. What happens when something as personal as love becomes a political weapon?
About Under a Saffron Sky
With this simple idea, two ordinary human acts—love and marriage—have become national anxieties. Researching this book took Ismat Ara from Arya Samaj mandirs in East Delhi, police stations in Uttar Pradesh, and the small rented rooms where couples live like fugitives. She realized she wasn’t just documenting interfaith couples; she was documenting a country at war with love. What struck her most was how women were erased from their own stories and Muslim men lived in fear of prison for falling in love. Under a Saffron Sky offers no conclusions. It is a record of people who were told, by law and family and state and mob, that their love was a threat to civilization—and who loved anyway. India Viking hardback: ISBN 9789377300234, 328 pages, August 2026. Penguin Random House India.
Ismat Ara is an award-winning journalist with bylines in Times of India, TIME, BBC, Wire, The Quint, Al Jazeera and The Hindu. Under a Saffron Sky is her first book.
