Thanatofuturism: Making Space for the Marginal at a Tomb Shrine in Bangalore

In the middle of Bangalore, a relatively small dargah (Sufi tomb shrine) is a space of possibility for multiple marginalized groups, facilitating imagined futures that include Muslims, subaltern Hindus, Dalits, and hijras as full citizens of the Indian polity. At a time when powerful political actors seek to limit national belonging to a particular segment of Hindu Indians, such spaces and the people who intersect through them are not simply places of resistance, but places where possible futures are grounded in the ethics of the past. Exploring the histories, objects, and rituals that intersect through an intentionally multireligious place illuminates the spectacular and mundane ways in which minoritized communities make space for themselves in an India where majoritarian religious nationalism is ascendant, but hitherto incomplete.