Cutchi Memon Digest February 2015

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E- Books on Cutchi Memon Culture and
Language available on this BookCase

Forgotten Cutchi Memon Customs of Bygone Years
Introductory Power Point Presentation
Full volume Flip book

Teach Yourself Cutchi in English, Malayalam, Hindi
Cutchi Qayado: Full volume with English, Hindi,
Malayalam, Gujarathi and Sindhi rendering.
Cutchi Memon Digest Volumes I to IV
Special Features :
I: January 2015 : Introductory Issue
II. February 2015 : Earthquakes in Cutch
III March 2015 : L egal Issues - Waqf
IV April 2015 : Special Kochi Edition

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CUTCHI MEMON DIGEST
FEBRUARY 2015

Do we still deserve to be called Cutchi
Memons and be discriminated against by

that name?

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CUTCHI MEMON DIGEST

FEBRUARY 2015

NO. 2/1

© COPYRIGHT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

DR. J.M.I.SAIT
AND

YOUNG MEN’S CUTCHI MUSLIM ASSOCIATION
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Editor:
Dr. J.M.I.Sait
KRA 50, Kamaleswaram
Manacaud
Thiruvananyhapuram 695009

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CMD No.2/1 February 2015
PREVIEW

EDITORIAL

Cutchi Memons are defined as an exclusive community of
Muslims whose members migrated from Cutch. They do not
intermingle with the local Muslims, marry only among their
tribes and speak only the Cutchi language. This situation of
the so called tribal purity has never existed in respect of those
who married from the local Muslim communities even as
early as 1910. Of course such cases were far and few to begin
with. But today except for a handful of families in Bengaluru,
Chennai and Ooty, no other Jamat can boast of having more
than one or two families which can claim such purity. Except
for a few families in Kerala, including Kerala migrants to
other states, none can even speak or understand the Cutchi
language as they have adopted the local language, be it
Malayalam, Urdu, Gujarati or other. Thus we have already
lost the qualities by which we are distinguished as an
exclusive tribe : the language and marital
exclusivity. ...............

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EARTHQUAKES IN CUTCH

A region of abnormally high seismicity in western India
appears to be caused by local convergence across the Rann of
Kachchh and possibly other rift zones of India. Cutch suffe-
red a series of earthquakes during the last many
centuries. Kutch is, therefore, classified as a seismically
active zone-V (Bureau of Indian Standards IS-1893:1984)….

Read also about the Earthquakes that affected Cutch since
Alexander’s time!

OUR LEADERS

Mahboob-e-Millath
Jb. Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait

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Ebrahim Sulaiman Sait was born on 3 November 1922 into a
family of Mysore Cutchi Memons settled in Bangalore, as the
son of Mohammed Sulaiman Sait and Zainab Bai. His mother
was from Thalasseri (Tellichery) in Kerala. He completed his
primary education in the Brennen High School and Madrassa
Yusufiya in Tellicherry as he had stayed back with his uncle
Tahir Mahmood Moosa. He could not ....
SIGHTING THE MOON

The Islamic calendar is based on lunar months, which begin
when the thin crescent Moon is actually sighted in the
western sky after sunset within a day or so after New Moon.
The ancient Hebrew calendar was also based on actual lunar
crescent sightings, although the modern Hebrew ......

PHASES OF THE MOON
From any location on the Earth, the Moon appears to be a
circular disk which, at any specific time, is illuminated to

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some degree by direct sunlight. Like the Earth, the Moon is a
sphere which is always half illuminated by the Sun, but as the
Moon orbits the Earth we get to see more or less of the
illuminated half. During each lunar orbit (a lunar month), we
see the Moon's appearance change from not visibly
illuminated through partially illuminated to fully illuminated,
then back through partially illuminated to not illuminated
again………………..
CHENNAI CUTCHI MEMON JAMATH

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The history of Cutchi Memons of Chennai (formerly known
as Madras) is more than 150 years old. There is no authentic
record of the first migration of Cutchi Memons to Madras. It
is, however, known that a Cutchi Memon, Mr. Abdul Rahim
Patel was deputed from Karachi as the “Patel of Madras”
sometime before 1870. He is known to have conducted
business in Madras after his arrival. Records show that his
son, Mr. Zackaria Abdul Rahim Sait “Mateen”, who became
a prolific writer, was born in 1884 in Madras. Early records
also show that, in 1880, the Corporation of Madras allotted
land for Cutchi Memons to use as their cemetery………..

DAR-ES-SALAAM CUTCHI MEMON JAMATH

TANZANIA

Memons, Bohras and Khojas were among the early visitors in
the East African coast. In the middle of the 18th century the
first Memons from Cutch and Bohras of Surat settled in
Zanzibar. As they were small in number, the Bohras later

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mixed with the Memons to bury their relatives. The Bohras
were numerous in Mombasa. Though initial settlers were
from Surat and Cambay, the later arrivals were almost
entirely from Kutch ............

NILGIRIS CUTCHI MEMON JAMAT

Among the early Cutchi Memon settlers in the Nilgiris were
Mr. Cawdeer Sait, Moosa Sait, Aboo Sait and Gul Mohamed
Sait. Moosa Sait's family donated the land for the Jumma
Masjid at Ooty, and the land for the burial ground near the
Ooty Lake. His family now exists in the person of Mr. Iqbal
Sait who lives in Ooty. Gul Mohamed Sait had his business
in Ooty on land later purchased by Hajee Fakeer Mohamed
Sait's family and where the present Hajee Fakeer Mohamed
Sait's Memorial Hospital now stands. Cawdeer Sait also
owned property in Ooty but records are not available to
substantiate this fact.

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KOCHI CUTCHI MEMON JAMAT

The first migration of Cutchi Memons to Kochi is believed to
have taken place around 1815. Having learnt that Cutchi
Memons were honest, hardworking and trustworthy
businessmen the Maharajah of Cochin gave them permission
to settle down in the state. He wanted them to live
permanently in his kingdom so that it would become
prosperous by means of foreign trade and commerce. ..........
KOLLAM CUTCHI MEMON JAMAT

Though there is no authentic information about early Cutchi
Memon settlers in Quilon, it is gathered from some elders

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that, during their initial years of migration here, they were
aware of five or six Cutchi Memon families settling in this
city and neighboring areas like Nadayara (near Varkala) and
Anjengo, which were then both developing ports. This was
when Raja Kesava Dasa was the Dewan of TravancorE
CUTCHI KORI

Cutch had its own coinage from 1778, the time East India
Company had a strong presence in Cutch, during the reign
of Rayadhanji II S/o Gohodaji II (2nd time; 1801 - 1813).
The Cutchi currency was the KORI. Its smallest fraction was
a Babukiya being 1/96th part of one Kori. The coinage in
between had been in multiples of 2. Thus,
1 Kori = 2 Adhio = 4 Payalo = 8 Dhabu = 16 Dhinglo = 24
Dokda = 48 Trambiyo = 96 Babukiya. ............

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CUTCHI BANDHNI

A well known traditional fabric of Cutch is the bandhini a
meticulously designed tie and dye fabric. A Cutchi woman
would feel incomplete without a bandhini oufit. It is an old
tradition to make bandhini sarees, misr (head scarf) etc.
The art of Bandhani is highly skilled process. The techni-que
involves dyeing a fabric which is tied tightly with a thread at
several points, thus producing a variety of patterns.

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PANJO CUTCHI RASODO

In this issue we present four varieties of Kutchi Khichdis, in
Kutchi language in the words of a genuine Kutchi Chef
(together with an English translation).
Khichdi as such is a very generic name. The Gujarati khichdi
is quite soft. The khichdi made in Bengaluru is very dry and
every grain of rice is separate. We call this texture of rice as
pharara. You must be able to hear every grain of rice fall in
the plate. The Hyderabadi khicdi is between the two. Neither
too soft nor too dry………

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EDITORIAL

‫ﺒﺴﻢ ﷲ ﺍﻠﺮﺤﻣݧ ﺍﻠﺮﺤﻴﻢ‬

Dear Brethren
‫ﺁﻠﺴﻶﻡ ﻋﻠﻳﻜﻡ ﺮﺤﻣﺔ ﷲ ﻭ ﺒﺮﮐﺁﺗﮥ‬

At the very outset let me thank all those readers

who responded to the inaugural issue of the

Memon Digest, Kerala with positive comments and

suggestions. They will be implemented in this and

future issues as far as relevant and feasible. I

would like to raise an issue which has not

received the attention of our people so far or at

least has not been given serious thought.

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Cutchi Memons are treated as a
distinct community by all including the
Government of India. As far as Kerala is concerned
there is no distinction between various categories
of Muslims and all of them are eligible for
specified percentage of reservation in the
educational institutions and the state government
service. But when it comes to the central
government services and national educational
institutions the State categorization of Muslims is
accepted with a rider that Cutchi Memons are not
eligible for the reservation benefits, the reason
being this community is rich and educationally
advanced. Though it was considered so in pre-
independence days, it had never been so for
decades. Records of any Jamath will show the
education level of the majority of the members of
the community— illiterate and poor. A large cross
section of the community constituted street
vendors and petty commodity brokers. Once upon

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a time the rich and philanthropic members took
care of the poorer population. The members of the
community were least interested in education,
leave alone professional and higher education, as
their avocation as merchants and vendors did not
call for any educational qualification. The
condition has drastically changed now at least for
the last five or six decades. We are no longer a
business community nor an illiterate stock. Yet our
children do not get the opportunity for central
government jobs or admission to professional
institutions as our counterpart Muslims. The first
question that arises is how this issue escaped by
our community leaders, especially those high in
the political arena. It is for the serious
consideration of the community now how to bring
this issue to the notice of the Central authorities in
order that Cutchi Memons are treated at least at
par with other Muslims.

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Cutchi Memons are defined as an exclusive
community of Muslims whose members migrated
from Cutch. They do not intermingle with the local
Muslims, marry only among their tribes and speak
only the Cutchi language. This situation of the so
called tribal purity has never existed in respect of
those who married from the local Muslim
communities even as early as 1910. Of course
such cases were far and few to begin with. But
today except for a handful of families in
Bengaluru, Chennai and Ooty, no other Jamat can
boast of having more than one or two families
which can claim such purity. Except for a few
families in Kerala, including Kerala migrants to
other states, none can even speak or understand
the Cutchi language as they have adopted the local
language, be it Malayalam, Urdu, Gujarati or other.

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Thus we have already lost the qualities by which
we are distinguished as an exclusive tribe : the
language and marital exclusivity!!

Can we now rightfully claim to be Cutchi Memons
conforming to the old definition ? Or should we
hang on to it and continue to be deprived of our
rightful place as a significant part of the Muslim
community? This may be thought of by some
community leaders as ―High Treason‖ , but the fact
remains that in another few years even our status
as Bessar or Asudh Memons will disappear with
the ever increasing rate of our girls being married
off to other communities, which is a natural
phenomenon.

According to me there are only two courses of
action open to us: First, recognizing the fact that
we have completely lost the purity factors due to
local assimilation, we should seek to be treated at
par with other Muslims, yet maintaining our

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cultural identity, for which a collective approach at
the Federation level is needed. Second, stop
calling ourselves Cutchi Memons and adopt some
other nomenclature to suit our current cultural
status so that the exclusion does not affect us. I
do not foresee this to be an easy exercise as it
involves a lot of serious thinking and unlearning of
our extant pride and dogmas. May be it will take
another decade or two before a concrete action is
initiated.

I shall be much grateful for reader‘s responses—
concurrences as well as brickbats and above all
proposals for concrete action.
‫ﻮﺍﻠﺴﻼﻡ‬

J.M.I. Sait

Editor

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Earthquakes in West Asia

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Earthquake

es in Cutch

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A region of abnormally high seismicity in western
India appears to be caused by local
convergence across the Rann of Kachchh and
possibly other rift zones of India. Cutch suffered a
series of earthquakes during the last 12
centuries. Kutch is, therefore, classified as a
seismically active zone-V (Bureau of Indian
Standards IS-1893:1984). Major Earthquakes that
affected Cutch as per available records had been
the following :

B.C. 325 Source of the earthquake could be in
the Gulf of Kachchh; Tsunami waves partly
destroyed Alexander‘s army anchored at the
ancient mouth of the Indus River-
Magnitude >Mw7

893 and May 1668 North West of Great Rann with
serious effects on Cutch; Magnitude >Mw 7.

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February 1705 Medieval town of Gogha
near modern-day Bhavnagar was affected
Magnitude >Mw 6 No record of losses is
available.

June 16, 1819 Bhuj, Anjar and Rann of Cutch.
1,543 deaths, Allahbund Dam created as a
result; Magnitude >Mw 7. This Tsunami caused a
large scale migration from Cutch towards South.

July 21, 1956 Anjar; Magnitude >Mw 6

January 26, 2001 Bhuj 20,000 death; entire Bhuj
and neighbouring suburbs and villages were
totally destroyed; Magnitude >Mw 7

April 14, 2012 Magnitude Mw 4.0 9.00 am No
serious damages were reported

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July 19, 2013 Magnitude Mw 3.6 1.50 pm No
serious damages were reported

OCTOBER 325 BC
According to Plutarch, In August 325 BC,
Alexander with about 135,000 foot soldiers and
cavalry men left Patala towards Carmania, for the
long and difficult march back homeward by land
route. On 15 September 325 BC, following the
departure of the bulk of army via the southern
land route, the Greek fleet of 150 ships under
Nearchus' command, set out to sea for Carmania
and Babylonia with the remaining army which had
dwindled to about 17,000 - 20,000 men.
However, September was too early in the season
for the journey west as the summer monsoon
winds blow in this region from a southwest
direction from May through October. Almost
immediately after sailing from Patala, the ships
encountered adverse winds. It took almost a week

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to reach the Erythrean Sea (the Indian Ocean).
Subsequently, the fleet headed west towards
Morontobara or Woman's Harbour (present
Karachi) through the lagoon between the mouths
of rivers Indus and Hab and made a camp at Port
Alexander, south of river Hab as winds were not
favourable. At this time and at this location - in
late October / early November 325 BC - a large
earthquake and tsunami occurred near the Indus
delta/Kutch region where the fleet had taken
refuge. The earthquake had large magnitude and
massive waves destroyed a good part of
Alexander's fleet. Also, according to Sri Lankan
texts, a destructive tsunami struck the east side of
the island. However, no details are available as to
the exact date of the event, the location of
Alexander's fleet at that time, or the extent of the
losses.In all probability, the earthquake occurred
along the Makran coast (of present southern
Pakistan) and generated a destructive tsunami.

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The earthquake must have been very similar to the
Makran earthquake of 1945, which generated a
destructive tsunami along coastal areas of India,
Pakistan, Iran and Oman and so it is inferred that
the earth quak must have an intensity of about
Mw8. Another view is that the earthquake occurred
in the Gujarat region, where large events are also
known to occur - particularly along the Kutch
Graben region or even near the Bombay graben.
This naturally implies that Cutch must have been
affected. No conclusive evidence is, however,
available.

893 - 894 A.D. - Debal (Indus Delta, Sindh),
Pakistan.

Thousands are believed to have perished in
a major earthquake, of a magnitude of Mw 7.5, in
the Indus Delta, in present-day Sindh, Pakistan,
sometime between March 13, 893 and December
14, 894 A.D. The dates according to the Tariqul

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Khulafaha (History of the Caliphs) and Alkamil-fiI
Tarikh by Ibn-ulathir the date is mentioned as the
day of Lunar eclipse (full moonday 14th or 15th) in
Shawwal of AH 280 corresponding to December
27/28, 893 The massive shock destroyed several
towns and even resulted in the Indus River,
changing its course. The earthquake was located
in the vicinity of the town of Debal.

<<< The Ruins of
Brahmanabad resultant of 893-94 earthquake
The quake occurred at night and "caused the
entire town (Debal) to disappear". Only 100
buildings were left standing. The number of dead

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that were dug out of the debris, are thought to
number as high as 1,50,000. Five aftershocks are
also said to have been felt. Many other towns in
the region were badly affected and eventually
abandoned. To the north of Debal, near present-
day Hyderabad, the towns of Bahmanabad and
Mansura were badly affected. They were important
cities in the region and suddenly disappeared from
historical records. Archaeological excavations at
the sites, revealed ―human bones, which were
found in doorways, as if people were attempting
to escape or in the corners of rooms; some
upright, some recumbent, with their faces down
and some crouched in a sitting posture." A brick
which had "entered corner-ways into a skull, and
which when taken out, had a fragment of bone
adhering to it", found in the ruins suggested an
earth quake. It was originally believed that a fire
destroyed the city. However, excavators could not
find any evidence of fire. Abu Rihana, a noted

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historian in the 11th century, mentions both
Brahmanabad and Mansura in his travalogues
dated about 1031 AD. The city's walls and
buildings had been destroyed. Possibly the
survivors could have returned to salvage
belongings or to rebuild the town. Nevertheless
the city gradually decayed. Mansura is known to
have existed as late as 1250 A.D. After this period
there is no further mention it, until the discovery
of their ruins.There are similar reports of damage
from other towns in the region including Bhuj and
adjacent towns. Patala, Nagar and Balmeer are also
said to have been damaged at about the same
time . Towns in Kutchh, to the south and the
north-west of Bhuj were restored after being
ruined by an unmentioned event, during the same
time period.

The Nara River as well as the Indus is known to
have shifted course, westward, during this period,

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the Nara drying up at Bahmanabad. The Indus,
which used to flow through the eastern Nara,
shifted westward and witnessed a drop in the rate
of its flow and energy. Two famous seaports,
Debal and Barbarike Emporium, were deserted by
1250 A.D. due to the failure of the river. Massive
floods in the years after the earthquake,
accelerated this process. The coastline has also
dramatically been altered since then. Arab records
from their invasion of the Sindh in 719 A.D.
suggest that a number of harbour towns
flourished on the shores of the Rann, which was
then navigable upto Nagar. However, in 1361 A.D.,
Arab historians described the entire region as a
"howling desert".

MAY 1668

In his 1710 history of the reign of the Emperor
Aurangzeb (Maasir-i-Alamgiri), the Persian
historian Musta‘idd Khan notes that in May 1668 a

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report was received from the Mughal province of
Thatta that an earthquake had damaged the town
of Samawani , in the jurisdiction of the port of
Lari, and had sunk down the town with 30,000
residents. On the 1st Zí-l hijja, 1078 A.H. (3rd
May, 1668), the intelligence arrived from Thatta
that the town of Samájí had been destroyed by an
earthquake; thirty thousand houses were thrown
down. At this time (between the 1st and 10th Zíl
hajja, 1078 A.H a report was received from the
Soobah of Tattah that the town of Samawani (or
Samanji) which belongs to the Parganah of Láhori
had sunk into the ground with 30,000 houses
during an earthquake. Total casualties was
estimated to be around 50. Though the damage
elsewhere was colossal it appears that Cutch was
marginally affected. It is said that the temples and
mosques built in 1574 and 1627 at Mandvi, the
port city in southern coast of Cutch, remained
unscathed until the earthquake in 1819. It is worth

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noting that a Himalayan earthquake that damaged
the Kathmandu Valley in 1668 is mentioned briefly
(a single sentence) in Nepalese histories.

June 16, 1819

Earthquake in 1819, practically two centuries ago,
had a devastating effect on the entire Cutch
peninsula. A vivid description of the disaster was
provided by the British Resident in Bhuj and the
Collector of Anjar to the Governing Council /
Board of the East India Company. The earth quake
was so severe that it affected the entire Cutch and
caused damages in faraway places like
Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroch etc. and caused
tremors in as far as Kolkatta and Sindri. The data
describe severe damage in Bhooj and Anjar
(Mercalli Intensity X), and hint at similar damage in
many villages of Kachchh. Shaking at Ahmedabad
and Surat was less severe (Perhaps intensity 7). In

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Bombay the event was scarcely felt although it was
felt in Nepal and near Madras.

(:http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/AB2007/Verb
atimAccounts1819.html, retrieved 15 Jan 2015)

The following extracts are transcribed from
approximately 50 pages of handwritten minutes
and letters, sent to and from the Governer's Office
in Bombay, concerning the 16 June 1819 Kachchh
earthquake in the days following the event.
Captain James MacMurdo was the British
representative (Resident) in Kachchh, and in
addition to these government reports, he
subsequently submitted a collection of papers
describing the earthquake to the Literary Society
of Bombay. These were published posthumously in
Volume 3 (1823). MacMurdo died from cholera at
the age of 33.

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On 8th July 1819, H. Newham, the Acting Chief
Secretary of Bombay reported to the secretary East
India house, London: About twenty minutes past
seven in the evening of the 16th June 1819, a
slight shock of an earthquake was very perceptibly
felt in various parts of the Island. The shock did
not last above a minute and no injury appears to
have been sustained from its effects, indeed the
concussion was so slight that many persons did
not notice it, and entertained doubts of it having
taken place, but its consequences were very
severely felt at the Northern Stations, particularly
at Ahmedabad and also in Cutch. At the former it
has destroyed the beautiful shaking minarets of
the Juma Musjed which were so long the ornament
and admiration of the East, and done considerable
damage to other Public and Private Buildings.

At Anjar the Fort wall with its towers and Guns
have been levelled to the ground with three

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fourths of the houses in the Town, those which
have been left standing have also sustained injury
and the general destruction is emphatically stated
by the resident to have reduced a flourishing
population in one moment to wretchedness and
misery. Similar damages have been done at Bhooj
with an equal loss in human life.

Private letters from all parts of Guzerat and
Kattywar concur in stating it to have been felt with
great severity through the country. The private
letters included those from Lt. Col. Colin Milnes of
His Majesty's 65th Regiment and commanding the
troops in Cutch, Chas Nurris the acting and
Criminal Judge of Ahmedabad, which together
with the accounts given in the Bombay Gazette
conveyed a most lamentable picture of the effects
of the Earthquake.

―The Minarets of the Juma Musjid, (at Ahmedabad)
the highest and most beautiful in the place, were

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thrown down, various other Minarets outside the
walls have shared the same fate, and many of the
Mosques have been otherwise shattered and much
injured. One of the gates of the town has also
fallen. Of the Government buildings the Adawlut,
has alone been affected. None of the walls have
actually fallen , but they have been cracked by the
shock in several places‖

Several private houses were destroyed. ―During the
confusion occasioned by the shock, a prisoner
who was in confinement for security escaped from
the Gaol, the Sepoys on guard had all left the gate
in the moment of alarm and he took this
opportunity to pass out unobserved.‖

J Pruen from Surat wrote to the Superintendent‘s
office in Bombay ―I have the honor to inform you
at 20 before 8 PM yesterday evening the City of
Surat and for some miles round and the opposite
bank of the Taply, were visited by that

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Phenomenon Earthquake in a very awful
degree. When it first began I was lying down on
my Couch, being still an Invalid. I found the whole
house in serious agitation. The furniture all in
motion and a small table close to me so much so
as to keep striking the wall the lamp moving from
east to west with the house about 6 or 8 inches
each way. I got down stair as fast as possible
about three minutes had transpired before I got
out of the house, and I felt myself a little giddy. I
found a number of people collected outside
looking with astonishment at my house, which
stands alone, and which was in such agitation I
expected it to fall every second. The earth under
our feet was by this time convulsed and seemed as
if it was floating on a long ground swell trying to
break it away through, and from its very great
motion I expected to see the ground crack. The
shock lasted about 5 or 6 minutes and appeared
to me to run from East to West. The inhabitants

38

were much alarmed. Not a breath of wind was
moving, with a clear sky, nor was there the least
warning of its approach. On enquiry this morning I
find several accidents have happened to houses,
and at the village of Omer about 2 miles west,
several Houses fell down. A Parsee Pagoda fell
down in one side, and reports said one poor man
was killed 10 minutes past 10 AM. We have just
had another shock that lasted only one minute. I
likewise felt two slight ones about 8:30 last night
and at 10:10 am another shock. This shock
stopped my watch, the glasses containing the oil
in the lamp in two or three houses were upset. The
well in the Jail whose water was about four feet
below the earth was forced up to run over. The
river water was likewise much agitated. A tank of
water in the Bazar likewise threw its water out.
Time alone will inform us whether it will be a
partial convulsion of nature in the bowels of the

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Earth near this latitude caused by some great
eruption at a far distant spot.‖

MacMurdo wrote from Anjar on 17 June 1819:
‖It is with sincere regret that I have to inform you
that this place was visited by an earthquake
yesterday evening at 10 minutes before 7 O'clock.
The effects of the shock, which lasted nearly 2
minutes, have been the leveling of the Fort Wall to
the ground. Not a hundred yards of the wall
remain in any one spot, and guns, towers etc. are
all hurled in one mass of ruin.

The destruction in the town has been distressing
and awful. Not 1/4 of the houses are standing and
those that do remain are all ruined. I cannot yet
state the particulars of the losses, but I may in one
word say that a flourishing population has been
reduced in one moment to wretchedness and
misery. I fear we shall have to lament the loss of

40

upwards of one hundred people besides those
hurt. Reports from the country state similar
disasters in all the villages round about, and
letters from Bhooj inform us that the Fort is much
in the same condition as Anjar.‖ Slight shocks
continued to be felt.

On the 19th he reported ―the shock has destroyed
in a greater or lesser degree, every fort and town
from Arrisir to Luckput. Many of the villages round
about Anjar are reduced to heaps of rubbish, and I
fear that those in Cutch and Wagir generally are
little less injured. Bhooj has been a great sufferer.
The walls of the town level with the ground. The
palace in many parts in the same state, and the
private dwelling houses in ruins. The loss of lives
is not exactly ascertained but the lowest
calculation makes it 500 people. The Rao's family
has escaped, with the exception of the old lady,
the widow of Rao Raidhan. Mandavee is stated to

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have suffered less than other places and is said to
have lost only 125 people. Accounts from Coorbee
state that town to be in ruins. Loss in Anjar has
been greater than I had at first supposed. We have
to lament the loss of 166 lives besides and double
that number wounded, many of whom severely.
Out of 4500 houses of which the town is
composed, about 1500 are so completely
destroyed as to not leave one stone upon another.
They are overturned from the very foundation.
About 1000 more are laid in ruins and so dreadful
has been the shock, that of the standing some are
injured and many uninhabitable. ―

Milnes from Bhooj wrote: ―Every three hours we
feel the Earth trembling under us but in a slighter
degree. The inhabitants quitted the town
yesterday, and slept out last night in the plains
and about the neighbouring hills. The number of
lives at present ascertained to be lost is almost

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500. ― Interestingly not much loss of life occurred
in the British camp.

Milnes wrote on the 19th June ―The last trembling
we had was at 12 o'clock this day, rather severe,
so that we are still kept in dread. Between 50 and
100 missing bodies have been discovered in the
Town. Before this awful event took place we had
not the least warning of its approach whatever. On
the evening it occurred I took a short ride. The
weather was delightful, a clear sky, a gentle
breeze and perfectly cool, there having been a
heavy fall of rain only a few days before. As I was
returning home in a quick walk, some time after
the Sun had set, when within about a quarter of a
mile of the front of our camp I suddenly perceived
something very unusual and extraordinary in the
paces of my horse. His legs appeared to be in
motion but he seemed to make no way whatever,
at the same time, I felt a sort of dizziness in my

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head, and a sickness in my stomach, supposing
this to proceed from the strange motion of the
horse and that he was ill and might fall under me,
I was thinking to dismount when my attention was
distracted by an immense cloud of dust bursting
out from the center of the hill Fort, which I took to
be an explosion of gunpowder, and the first
impression on me was that an accident had
happened to the Magazine. But on casting my eyes
to the left towards Bhooj, I observed the whole
Town from one extreme to the other completely
enveloped in a similar cloud, and on looking
behind me I also observed the same appearance at
no great distance in that quarter. I was then
satisfied of its being dust and not Gunpowder, and
concluded it to be some description of Typhoon or
Hurricane, but still I was perplexed to account for
its continuing so perfectly calm and serene about
the spot where I was standing, and there not being
the least symptom of a wind rising. I was just

44

about moving quickly into Camp when I saw
Captain Wilson, the assistant resident, who had
been riding with me and from whom I had parted
only a few minutes before, coming towards me
from the town. He acquainted me that he was
entering by one of the gateways when there was a
general crash and that the whole place had fallen
down. Upon this I of course knew at once the
cause, but until that moment had not the most
distant idea of its being an earthquake. When I go
to my tent I found that the Table which had been
laid out for dinner was thrown over and everything
on it smashed to pieces. The deposed Rao's
mother and his Father's wives were among the
sufferers in town. Some part of the Palace fell
upon her, the body not yet found.‖

The devastation was naturally followed by acute
famine and the subsequent floods must have
made life miserable. This was a major reason for

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the inhabitants to leave Cutch in search of
livelihood. Though some of the richer Cutchi
Memon individuals left Cutch in about 1815, the
major exodus occurred in the following 5 to 7
years coinciding with the 1819 disaster and
famine. This is well corraborated by the Rabia Bai's
account.

The Rann

The Ranns existed as a shallow embayment and
inlets of the sea. Nevertheless, in the last two
centuries, silting of the area, probably
accompanied by elevation of the land has
converted the marine embayment into dry salt
covered mud flats. The earthquake caused an area
of subsidence that formed the Sindri Lake and a
local zone of uplift to the north about 80 km long,
6 km wide and 6 m high that dammed the Puram
river. To distinguish it from the man-made dams
that were common in the region, the uplifted area

46

became known as the Allah Bund, or Dam of God.
The mound produced had a markedly asymmetric
geometry, with a shorter and steeper south-
dipping margin, about 600 m wide and a dip of
0.65°, and a broader north-dipping margin over 5
km wide with a dip of only about 0.05°.

Sindri Lake, with a surface area of more than
1,000 km2, was formed due to subsidence of up
to 3 m south of the Allah Bund. Initially, the lake
was cut off from the river (damming further
upstream had anyway stopped the flow) and was
filled with seawater. On the western margin of the
lake a small delta built out from the eastern part
of the larger Indus Delta. After 1826 the river
broke through the artificial dam and eventually
broke through the bund itself, causing the lake to
become freshwater again

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July 21, 1956

The 1956 Anjar earthquake occurred at 15:32 on
21 July, which caused maximum damage in town
of Anjar in Kutch. It had an estimated magnitude
Mw 6.1.The town of Anjar and the Taluka of Anjar
were the most affected region with 2000 houses
damaged, of which half of them were in Anjar
town alone. The other towns affected were Bhuj,
Kirai, Bhachau, Gandhidham and port town of
Kandla. At least 115 people were reported to have
died and casualties numbered to 254 as per
government records. Anjar, which is a historic
town and very congested in the old parts was
largely destroyed It was estimated that more than
3,000 houses in 25 villages developed huge
cracks, losses ran up to Rs 10 million. Such
devastation wreaked by the quake made it one of
the worst calamity to hit Kutch in the past 100
years. More than 8,000 people migrated from the

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district a few days after the quake. The earthquake
was followed by heavy rains, which added to the
misery of thousands living in temporary camps.
Later, new houses were raised on old foundations,
and in due course of time also the new township
of Naya Anjar or New Anjar township was founded
after this earthquake for rehabilitation purpose.

Anjar Earthuake July 21,1956
The railway track near Anjar was damaged as the
earth gave way over a length of nearly 50

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