After independence, Ahmedabad became a provincial town of Bombay. On May 1 1960, Ahmedabad became a state capital as a result of the bifurcation of the state of Bombay into two states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. A large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city in the 1960s. In February 1974, Ahmedabad occupied the centre-stage of national politics with launch of the Nav Nirman agitation. It started of as an argument over a 20% hike in hostel food bill in the L.D. College of Engineering, but ignited an agitation which later snowballed into the Nav Nirman movement. This movement caused the then chief minister of Gujarat, Chimanbhai Patel, to resign and also gave Indira Gandhi one of the excuses for imposing the Emergency on June 25, 1975[2]. There were two major anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985[3]. On 26 January 2001, a devastating earthquake centred near Bhuj, measuring 6.9 on the richter scale, struck the city. As many as 50 multistoried buildings collapsed killing 752 people[4]. In February and March 2002, Ahmedabad witnessed communal riots as an aftermath of the burning of a train full of Hindu pilgrims at Godhra.
