Illustration/Devdutt Pattanaik

Woh toh Radha ka bhi Shyam, woh toh Meera ka bhi Shyam, is a popular Bollywood song from the 1970s. In this song, we are told that Krishna loves Radha as much as he loves Meera. The problem here is that Radha is a mythical character who comes to us from Jayadeva's Gita Govinda composed 800 years ago, and Meera is a historical princess and poet-saint who lived 400 years ago in Rajasthan. But this detail makes no difference to common people who are unable to distinguish the mythic past from the historical past. In fact, after the Padmavati controversy, it is clear that even fiction becomes history in India eventually, with the blessings of politicians.