Imagining home: Mahtab Hussain’s photography of diaspora and belonging

Abstract

This paper responds to the works of photographers dealing with questions of diaspora, home, and belonging in the context of South Asia. I offer a close reading of the works and practices of Mahtab Hussain, a British-Kashmiri artist, by placing his photographs and practices in conversation with the work of scholars in the field of diaspora studies and educational research. Hussain’s photographic work offers a curriculum: a rewriting, a creation, an imagination, and a retelling of the story of the Azad Kashmiri diaspora and it is told from multiple axes—the homeland, those who moved, and the ways in which this migration impacted the lives of those who stayed back. Ultimately, Hussain’s artistic work invites educational researchers, theorists, and artists to rethink our notions of home, belonging, and diaspora; to imagine otherwise.