“Our leaders of the freedom struggle, especially from 1920 onwards, were so much obsessed with

Hindu-Muslim unity that they considered it as the most essential ingredient of the freedom
struggle,” writes Bhave. “They had therefore become so oversensitive to Muslim sentiments that
they would not touch with a bargepole anything they believed would give offense to Muslim minds.
Their craze for keeping the Muslims in good humour went to the extent of admitting tacitly that
even the word Hindu was to be discarded in order to keep our Muslim brethren in a happy state of
mind.”