What happened to this country?

I was watching a special today by Vir Das , For India . He in one of his jokes about the Ram Mandir , meant to say that that it was built on a propaganda of hatred . “ ok i guess we have hatred now - break the masjid build a mandir “ I find absolutely nothing wrong in joke but I was watching it with a couple of people who had inclination towards the right , did not take the joke well at all . They cussed , berated and went on to say that he shouldn’t even talk about. Now these are people that I like and good people who I didn’t expect something like this from . I genuinely feel that we have been filled with such hatred in the last couple of years by being fed the idea that hindus are being oppressed and we need to safeguard are religious beliefs just in order for a party to build a vote bank .

I have never given much thought about the political and religious history of India yet but would really want to read articles, books or any literature that would provide credible information about what just really happened man . How did we end up in such a shit show