Memes, National Identity and National Belonging: Visual “Nation-Talk” on Indian Social Media Pages

Abstract

I collected data from political social media pages to show how memes serve as means to engage in heated “nation-talk.” Contending claims are made through memes on the identity of an “Indian” and on the sense of belonging to India. I collected memes over a period of twenty months from two overtly political Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of followers. After multiple rounds of coding and filtering we arrived at a final sample of memes to be studied in depth. The memes, from opposing political sides, draw inter-textual component elements from the same popular culture, mythology etc. Through the repetition of specific components, slogans etc. these memes exclude certain claims of belonging to India while enforcing others. Key to this repetition are the circulatory dynamics of memes over digital networks, and their performative aspects. India’s history emerges as a significant battleground for these memes.