I keep happening upon little bits of information presenting Gandhi as an evil genocidaire, and while there seems to be some evidence to this at first, the sources of these sentiments are never very credible. On top of that, none of the summaries I've found of Gandhi's life and teachings make any mention of any bigotry or vitriol on his part. I was wondering if anyone here could direct me towards information to give me a more wholesome understanding of these issues. Thanks!
Well, he didn't. I'm not really sure what your question means, but i'll try to explain a few things.
Speaking in terms of a large majority,. Hindus and Muslims had no problem with Gandhi. He basically got them to stop rioting in Calcutta in 1947 by refusing to eat until the fighting stopped.
Gandhi was in favor of friendly relations with Pakistan. So much, that he advocated a support of 5 billion rupees (~$1.3 billion in 1947) to Pakistan, over the expenditure that India was already handling, considering the partition wasn't really easy on the economy.
There was rioting everywhere so religious sentiments weren't really cooperative, and it was pretty clear Pakistan was preparing for war. So the soft policy of Gandhi did not go well with the extreme right wing and led to his assassination.
As for the second part of the question, I'm not really sure what you are trying to imply. Kaffir is a word used by Muslims to generally denote non-Islamic people. Simply speaking, Gandhi was a Kaffir in the eyes of Muslims inclined to think that way.
Summing up, the India-Pakistan war of '48 happened despite the efforts of Gandhi, not because of them.