In an Imagined State

This article reflects on an oral histories project with transfeminine individuals born in the 1960s in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) between the Sri Lankan state and Tamil separatists spanned much of the lives of the participants. The project highlights the creative and imaginative strategies transfeminine people used to make life possible amid war without being subsumed by it. It explores how performance and everyday objects like the bike dynamo, prickly pear, saris, and letters were used not only to survive but also to craft vibrant life worlds amid violence. Drawing from queer of color scholarship, the article emphasizes materially grounded histories that move beyond purely discursive accounts of gender and sexuality. For instance, the sari folds histories of trans lives, stage performance, and Tamil nationalism in Jaffna. These objects reveal the abundance of transfeminine life, challenging narratives of paucity or loss. The article introduces the concept of the “imagined state” to refer to both the influence of multiple states—India, Sri Lanka, and the separatist LTTE—and the state of creative potential through participants' intimate attachments to objects. By centering trans world-making, the article rethinks Jaffna's history through the lens of trans abundance.