The 2007 India & Pakistan Expedition: Places Were Home was a fine‑art–driven photographic and historical exploration. The project aimed to document the architectural and emotional legacy of the 1947 Partition through the abandoned, repurposed, or decaying homes across northern India and central Pakistan. Using black‑and‑white medium‑format photography, the expedition sought to visually interpret the built environment left behind by displaced Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu communities.
The expedition began in India, where the participant travelled through Haryana and Delhi to locate ancestral villages on both sides of his family. In Saha, Ambala, he found that former Muslim homes had been demolished and replaced with a Krishna temple, while several mosques had fallen into ruin. Conversations with elderly residents revealed layered histories of coexistence, migration, and loss. Similar patterns appeared in Tangel and Chakda, where former Muslim properties had either vanished or been folded into new village life. Yet, unexpectedly, many Muslim shrines (Mazars) remained preserved and respected, suggesting a nuanced local attitude toward heritage.
In Pakistan, the participant expanded his focus beyond family homes to include architecturally striking Havellis, colonial buildings, and religious structures in Kot Samaba, Allahabad (Punjab), and Rahim Yar Khan. Many of these properties displayed visible layers of repopulation, decay, and adaptive reuse by Muslim refugees from India after 1947. His time in Lahore allowed further study of non‑Muslim heritage—Sikh Gurdwaras, Hindu temples, and colonial‑era structures—reflecting how demographic shifts reshaped urban and rural landscapes.
The report concludes that Partition’s architectural afterlives reveal a complex interplay of memory, loss, resilience, and repurposing. Communities on both sides of the border preserved select sacred sites while reshaping others to meet new social realities.