NEW DELHI , India ( CNN ) -- The wounds of partition festered again this week in India , resulting in the banning of a book and the expulsion of a respected politician . Protesters burn an effigy of Jaswant Singh over his book ; the former foreign minister was ousted from his party . The home state of the father of Indian independence , Mahatma Gandhi , forbade the sale and circulation of a new book it says spews revisionist history about the birth of secular but predominantly Hindu India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan . Written by Jaswant Singh , a former federal minister and senior member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) , the book calls Mohammed Ali Jinnah , considered by Indians the architect of the partition , a great man who is wrongly demonized . Jinnah went on to become the first governor general of Pakistan . In `` Jinnah : India , Partition and Independence , '' Singh absolves the Pakistani leader as the man responsible for dividing the subcontinent , suggesting instead that it was another beloved independence leader , Sardar Patel , who played a major role . `` The book wrongfully portrays the fateful partition of our nation , '' the Gujarat state government said in a statement. `` Such a brainchild has no historic background at all . In the larger interest of society , the state government has decided to impose a ban on the book . '' The BJP accused Singh of deviating from the party 's `` core ideology '' . `` We always respect freedom of expression but can never compromise our ideology , '' Sidharth Nath Singh , a party spokesman , told CNN . `` You just ca n't eulogize Jinnah and accuse Sardar Patel instead . '' Singh , a widely respected politician known for his moderate views within the ranks of a conservative party , found it appalling that freedom of expression was threatened in the world 's largest democracy . `` The day we start banning books , we are banning thinking , '' Singh told reporters . He defended his work and said he did not understand the objection to his writings about Patel , who , as India 's first home minister , banned the Hindu revivalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh , the mother organization of the BJP , after the assassination of Gandhi in 1948 . `` I do n't know which part of the core belief I have demolished , '' Singh said . Nearly 350 years of British rule ended in 1947 when an agreement for independence was reached to give Muslims their own homeland . Indians think of Jinnah as the man who pushed a two-state notion based on religion as a prerequisite for freedom . In the days that followed , an estimated 1 million people died in a border-crossing exodus . Muslims fled from India into Pakistan while Hindus clamored to find new homes in India . The animosities fueled by that bloody birth -- including three wars fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir -- continue to haunt Indians , said journalist and author Tarun Tejpal . `` This flashpoint played out in public is a reminder of those wounds , '' Tejpal said of the book dispute . As a book of history written by a politician , it might have been inconsequential , Tejpal said . But as a book about the partition , it was incendiary . `` What happened 62 years ago continues to haunt us in a very bitter way , '' Tejpal said . `` We ca n't seem to leave our baggage in the past . '' This is n't the first time that Pakistan 's founder has caused trouble for a Hindu nationalist . BJP President Lal Krishna Advani was forced to temporarily step down in 2005 for praising Jinnah 's secularism during a trip to Pakistan . Political observers say the Singh controversy reflects a battle for the soul of the BJP , beleaguered by electoral defeats and vicious infighting . Many in India view the BJP as a divisive force attempting to gain power by exploiting Hindu-Muslim tensions . Advani was charged in the 1992 demolition of the 16th-century Babri mosque in the central Indian city of Ayodhya , though he was later acquitted in that case . Journalist K.G . Suresh , a longtime observer of conservative politics in India , said the BJP is struggling to figure out how to stay electable , whether to move right or stay closer to the center . `` Jaswant Singh 's book is a manifestation of that clash , '' Suresh said . Singh 's political climb is likely over , but what of younger Indians , now generations removed from those who remember independence ? Tejpal for one , senses the wounds could keep reopening . And that , he said , `` does n't bode well . ''
Home ##page of Mahatma Gandhi bans the history of India - Pakistan partition . Book suggests Congress leader Sardar Patel was the architect of the division . Animosities over the partition continue to impact India and Pakistan .