Triggered Town: Situating Communal Violence And Dissonance In The Wake Of The Gujarat Earthquake

This thesis investigates the intertwined narratives of the 2001 Gujarat, India earthquake and the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Ahmedabad. It examines the impact of these events on the city's urban population to explore the intersections of natural disasters, religion, caste violence, and rapid urbanization. Focusing on the rise of Ahmedabad's middle class, the study uses personal interviews with Hindu upper-castes and upper-middle-class earthquake victims to explore their evolving attitudes towards the environment, state politics, inter-community relationships and political amnesia. And more specifically, it seeks to delve into how this section of civil society who were impacted by both events, albeit differently, have interpreted and responded to them over the long term. It reveals how memories can be shaped and reconstructed with effective state-propagated distortions which in turn have led to widespread denial of social realities and contributed to then-chief minister Narendra Modi’s electoral victories. Over two decades, the influence of the Sangh Parivar and political leader Narendra Modi has fostered economic pride and aspirations among these citizens, overshadowing the city's traumatic seismic history together with religious, class and caste divides. As increasing climate induced disasters loom over India together with authoritarian supremacist threats to India's secular democracy, this research aims to highlight the potential contemporary crises that inland urban metropolises such as Ahmedabad are likely to face given their tumultuous environmental and political histories.