Central Kutch
Vande Mataram Smarak
Bhuj's memorial to the 2001 earthquake — a museum built from grief into resolve
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26 January 2001
The Bhuj earthquake killed nearly 20,000 people and levelled much of the old city. Vande Mataram Smarak stands on the site of the collapsed Town Hall and Prag Mahal grounds as the district's formal memory of that morning, and of the rebuilding that followed.
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Inside the memorial
Galleries walk through the science of the quake, first-person accounts, and a timeline of Kutch's reconstruction — including the surge of craft-based livelihoods that grew out of post-earthquake rehabilitation programmes.
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A quiet counterpoint
It is a sober stop rather than a scenic one, but a useful one before visiting Bhuj's old city — it explains why so much of what you see there was rebuilt within the last two decades.
