Nature’s Tandava Dance

In this chapter, Whitmore examines the next stage in the aftermath of the 2013 flooding, when immediate relief efforts gave way to the beginnings of reconstruction. In the reactions to the event and discussions about different reconstruction options, he notes the unfolding of a complicated and sometimes contradictory constellation of three related subjects: Shiva, nature (prakriti), and development (vikas). Whitmore argues that the shifting and context-dependent clustering of these three subjects means that they must all be understood to be shaping reconstruction in Kedarnath in relationship to each other rather than as separate variables, each with its own trajectory. He arcs the discussion through a description of his own visit to Kedarnath in 2014.