Beyond the Pale by Rudyard Kipling

An Englishman falls in love with a beautiful high-caste Indian woman and secretly begins a forbidden relationship with her. Their affair ends in disaster when cultural and racial boundaries are violently reinforced by society. The plot traces the illusion of love against the backdrop of colonial tension and inevitable tragedy. Kipling critiques both personal desire and institutional prejudice. A grim story about the limits of connection “beyond the pale” of social norms.