Examples of fathers who fell out with their sons (or daughters) — as Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav have done — from history, literature, movies and mythology 

Mughal empire

Prince Aurangzeb deposed and imprisoned his father, Emperor Shah Jahan, in 1658. Three decades earlier, Shah Jahan — then Prince Khurram — had rebelled and fought against his father Jehangir

DMK dynasty

M. Karunanidhi expelled elder son Alagiri, a former Union minister, from the DMK in 2014 for repeatedly violating party discipline

Magadha throne

Prince Ajatashatru is believed to have acquired the throne of Magadha by poisoning his father, king Bimbisara, in 492 BC

Russian novel

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, the fiery Dmitri fights his debauched father Fyodor Pavlovich over the same woman and is convicted of murdering him. The actual killer is the old man’s illegitimate son, Smerdyakov

Hollywood movie

In the 2000 film Gladiator, Roman prince Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) smothers his father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), to death by pressing the old man’s face into his robes while they embrace

President’s daughter

Fidel Castro’s daughter Alina Fernandez, a radio host in Miami, bitterly attacked her 
father on the air for years. Alina, who left Cuba in 1993, has said her uncle Raúl Castro “was the person whom you could go to and ask for help… Fidel was totally unhelpful”.

Indian epic

In the Ramayan, King Dasharath had to reluctantly exile Prince Ram for 14 years to keep an old promise to his favourite wife Kaikayee, who has drawn comparisons with Akhilesh’s stepmother Sadhana Gupta in the context of the Samajwadi Party feud

Detective story

Captain Musgrave murders and impersonates his father in The Worst Crime in the World, a Father Brown story by G.K. Chesterton

Greek mythology

Cronos, the youngest and most ambitious of the divine beings called Titans, ambushed his father Uranus and castrated him

Greek tragedy

In Sophocles’ tragedy, Theban prince Oedipus was raised away from home to cheat a prophecy about him killing his father and marrying his mother. He eventually does exactly that, unaware that the duo are his parents

Bollywood film

In the 2001 movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, businessman Yash (Amitabh Bachchan) disowns adopted son Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) for marrying the wrong girl but they eventually make up. Will life imitate film and Akhilesh be reunited with Mulayam?