Neeti Nair’s ‘Hurt Sentiments’ is contextualisation of present in past https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/reviews/story/neeti-nairs-hurt-sentiments-is-contextualisation-of-present-in-past-493454 
Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia by Neeti Nair. Harvard University Press. Pages 352
“Secularism was no longer an abstract constitutional principle; it had become an imperative to uphold, a slogan to embrace fully, wholly, in substantial measure” because the Act was “widely regarded as having the awesome potential to target and disenfranchise Indian Muslims, often described as ‘illegal’ and ‘Bangladeshi’ in the writings and speeches of BJP leaders”..
..What explains the Congress’ manifest ambivalence over secularism despite claiming to be its chief spokesperson? What were the compulsions brought to bear on Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Ambedkar while resolving the vexatious questions on India’s minorities?..
..Gandhi emerges as the idealist, the savant and the hard-headed politician who adroitly escaped some of the quandaries by a mix of pragmatism and compromise. The chapter on “Gandhi’s Assassination, Godse’s Defence, and the Minority Question”, with two telling epigraphs which set out their worldviews, poignantly depicts the Mahatma as isolated by the Left and the Right. To Gandhi’s assertion that “a prayer meeting is not a debating assembly... freedom of worship, even of public speech, would become a farce if interference became the order of the day”, his assassin Nathuram Godse’s salvo was, “I (am) determined to prove to Gandhiji that the Hindu too could be intolerant when his honour was insulted.” Godse’s sentiment was understandable in the background of his unwavering beliefs. What of the Congress?
Kripalani said Gandhi had not found a way of tackling the “problem of non-violent non-cooperation” on a “mass basis” because his policies had to be carried out by others and “these others” were not converted to his way of thinking. Were “these others” leaning towards the Godse school of thought of the “hurt” Hindus and the case for an “Akhand Bharat”? The author conceded, “Some amount of bigotry seeped into the soil, became acceptable. With Gandhi’s death died an idea of India.”