51 ・Article・ Communities Fragmented in Reconstruction after the Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 Miwa Kanetani 1. Introduction The purpose of this article is to examinewhat happened to communities in Bhuj, the district capital of Kachchh, when people in the stricken areas were relocated after the Gujarat Earthquake of 2001. On the morning of 26 January 2001-Republic Day-a massiveearthquake measuring magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale struck Kachchh in the western part of Gujarat. Final reports counted 16,500 dead (around 14,000 in Kachchh). Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes. I had carried out fieldworkon textile and Muslim artisans for a period of more than one year in Bhuj. I had left the town thirteen months earlier, after I finished gathering data for my doctoral thesis. I was shocked to find out that there were 2,370 fatalities in Bhuj, and that another 3,187 people were critically injured. Inspectors assessedthat 11,036 houses had completelycollapsed, and another 27,617were listed as partially collapsed [BHADA 2003: 4]. In May 2001, I managed to return to Kachchh for ten days to see how my "family" and friends were faring. Flattened Bhuj was hardly recognizable.I was unable to return to Kachchh until October 2003, which marked the beginning of a seriesof visitsin 2004 and 20051 to study the reconstructionprocess. Kachchh has long been susceptible to drought, cyclones and other types of natural calamity, and its nomadic people have found ways of adjusting to the seasonal cycle. 金 谷 美 和 Miwa Kanetani Author: JSPS Research Fellow,National Museum of Ethnology Subject: Cultural anthropology Articles: "Veils-Creating Boundaries between Hindus and Muslims in India: A Case Study in Kachchh, Gujarat in Cultural Anthropology, 70(1):77-98,2005.(in Japanse) "Tie-Dyed Cloth production as " Handicraft": Dyer's Adaptation to Change in Demand for Indian Textiles" in Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology, 29(3): 429-466.(in Japanese) 52 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 18, 2006 Although Kachchh had previously been struck by great earthquakes in 1819 and 1957, the earthquake of 2001 was different because news of the calamity was broadcast all over the world, and national and international aid for reconstruction was forthcoming. Recovery from disaster is usually slow and it is easy to imagine how the wrong types of remediesare applieddue to political expediency.Oliver-Smith has suggestedthat relief and reconstruction can be seen as being far more destructive to the social, moral, economic, and environmental fabric of an area than the physical damage wrought by an earthquake. After large-scale devastation,the rehabilitation and reconstruction process may continue for generationsbeyond those who sufferedthe original disaster.Development "programs", bringing with them a tribe of experts working on "projects",may become durable fixtures in the social landscape[Oliver-Smith 1996: 313-314]. Five years have alreadypassed since the earthquake in Kachchh, and each time I go there I feel that the place is changing in both material and social terms. There are three types of studies of post-disaster processes in general. First, there are studies ofpost-disaster social change.2 In such studies,hazards and catastrophesare regarded as instruments of change in the structure and organization of societies. Ethnographic fieldwork clearlyreveals that disaster affects religion and ritual, economics and politics, and kinship and association.Oliver-Smith describeshow the politico-economicstructure of Yungai city in the Andes totally changed during reconstruction [Oliver-Smith 1992]. Some historical studies have traced the aftermath of disaster and shown that the changes set off by the social responseto calamity can take decadesto unfold.3 Secondly,there are studies that look at the details of the rehabilitation processwith the purpose of evaluatingthe rehabilitation ofvictims. Recent disasterprevention studies4 have given new emphasis on the importance of considering how to mitigate risk and disaster damage, and taking into account social factorsin the disasterhazard area. Contribution of anthropologicalstudies to disastermanagement is discussed[Oliver-Smith 1996] and there is a possibility that these studies may be useful for disaster management.' Ethnography is advocated as an important method for analyzing disaster process in disaster prevention studies [Tanaka et al. 2000; Shigekawa2005]. Thirdly, there are studies about what the experienceof disasterbrings to those affected by it. For example, in a study based in the Philippines, Shimizu gives an account of how a minority group developed an identity, gained recognition, and negotiated with developmentagencies concerning what kind of reconstructionthey wanted after a disaster [Shimizu 2003]. Simpson's study presents a victim's narrative and identifies resurgence and subsequent diminishing of regionalism in Kachchh after the earthquake [Simpson 2005]. Other interesting studies deal with collectivememories of disaster [Terada 2004] and representationsof disaster [Hoffman 1999]. Disasters have been subject to little anthropological study.6Many disaster studies, however, have made it clear that the effects of disaster are as deeply embedded in the social structure of a societyas they are in the environment [Hayashi 2005: 2]. According Communities Fragmented in Reconstruction after the Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 53 to Hayashi, disaster can be understood as human experience,and anthropologicalmethod such as writing ethnography (including interviews, collection of life-histories and life- stories) is suitable for understanding individual experiences of disaster [Hayashi 2005: 5]. In this article, I considerthe processof reconstructionafter the disasterin Bhuj, focusing in particular on the ways in which each of the residents rebuilt their lives by employingthe resources availableto them. I also point out the fact that Bhuj town is gradually losing its atmosphere of community harmony as a result of choices made by individualswho want to reconstruct better lives.The fact that the government and NGOs have made caste a channel for resources greatly influences individual choices. In the case of Bhuj, even though neighborhood groups and caste associations both play important roles in local life, the government and NGOs have neglectedliaison with the neighborhood groups and relied only on caste associations to carry out relocation from the damaged walled town to the suburbs of Bhuj. The way this relocation from the walled town was carried out led to uni-caste-exclusivehousing colonies scattered around the suburbs. Relocation has concentrated residence in areas based on caste and religion. This socio-spatial rearrangement has torn apart the former cross-religiousneighborhood relationships. I employedthe following methods in this article to argue what I have mentioned above. I referred to the library of local newspapersin order to get an overall picture of the process of rehabilitation. I carefully read through the articles regarding town planning of Bhuj with help of my assistant.At the same time, I conducted long interviewswith individuals. Among these I particularlyspent a long time with 5 persons.I distributed questionnairesto 46 people living in slums.' I also asked about the experiencesof some other people through informal conversationswhich I have included in my discussion. It is difficult even to graspwhat is happening in situations of disasterand reconstruction since many events are occurring simultaneously.However, I have made a constant and consciouseffort not only to describe the process as a whole but also to retrace the people's personal experiences and narratives. Individual experiences and choices are greatly influenced by the whole process of reconstruction. I have also tried to place individual choices in the context of the reconstruction process. In the following,I will give an account of Bhuj in Section 2. Section 3 gives an overview of reconstruction policies, relocation programs and town planning. Section 4 discusses individuals' experiencesof and choices in the disaster and rehabilitation. In Section 5, I argue that religion plays an important part in the people'sconsciousness. 2. Background of Bhuj Kachchhdistrict is located in thewestern corner of the state of Gujarat. It isan isolated pieceof landsurrounded by seaand swampland. The north has a borderwith Pakistan 54 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 18, 2006 Table1 * Source:Gujarat State Gazetteers,Kutch District 1971, People of Gujarat2002. Communities Fragmented in Reconstruction after the Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 55 with swampland (rann) in between, and the west faces the Arabian Sea. Since the old times, Gujarati merchants went to the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa for trade. The population is 1,262,507 (1991 census) of which 80% are Hindu, less than 20% Muslim, and the rest Jain and others. Caste composition is shown in Table 1. Bhuj was established as the capital of the kingdom of Kachchh in 1548 by a Hindu king, originally a Jadeja Rajput from Sind. Figure 1 showsthe walled town of Bhuj with an Figure 1 56 Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 18, 2006 explanationof someof the localnames found on the map.The town was surroundedby a thickwall (gadh) with 5 gates(naku). Small houses and shopslined both sidesof the narrow curvilinearstreets (seri), which were connected by junctions(chok) of varyingproportion and scale.Besides seri and chok,the