This thesis is an ethnographic study that aims to explore how communal violence and displacement changed the experiences of Muslim survivors of the violence of 2002 in . the state of Gujarat, Western India. The thesis looks at the moral and material reconstruction of life after the violence. The aim is to understand how the worst affected (in this context the migrant Muslims who had moved to the city from various Indian states to work in the textile mills, and who lived in the suburbs and outer suburbs of the city) were positioned in relation to state and civil society organisations (secular NGOs and community organisations) and how their location within these discourses shaped their perceptions of self, religion and the choices they made in order to negotiate survival. The thesis builds on Eickelman and Salvatore's (2006:97-104), concept of Public Islam which says that there is no singular concept of Islam, but rather a multiplicity of overlapping fonns of practice and discourse that represent the varied historical and political trajectories of the Muslim communities and their links and influences with societies elsewhere. The analysis is located in the realm of an emerging Muslim public sphere - a sphere which is constantly being redefined globally by changes in communication, travel and education, as well as competing ideas of politics and religion.