Contagious memes, viral videos and subversive parody: The grammar of contention on the Indian web

Abstract

This essay presents the viral culture of videos, memes, and websites deploying the tropes of parody and satire as a newly emerging discourse of social and cultural critique on the Indian web. It situates this cultural phenomenon at the intersection of a prior tradition of heterodoxy in India as well as the globally proliferating memetic culture. The essay argues that the speech is distinguished by a logic of repetition with difference both in its parodic/satiric text as well as through its medium that allows the text to repeat at new sites creating new meanings.