Reading selective memes in the context of Darjeeling : A socio-political inquiry

Abstract

Treatment of memes as a cultural commodity has largely become an established convention today. This paper makes a case study of Memes as an observant of cultural codes in the context of Darjeeling. Particularly, it focuses on the image-based memes  and explain the ontology of memes as pervasive and circulatory in a digital space. Qualitative  research techniques is used in this paper to examine the meanings of different memes taken under study. Situating Darjeeling as a contested space, a demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland  guides as an axiological tool to map socio- political and economic undercurrents of the place. Different types of memes analyzed here points at the anxieties of living in the hills in post-agitation times. To be specific, this paper delineates the periodic framework from 1988 to present times as an aftermath of Gorkhaland movement to be read as the period marking the acceptance of semi-autonomous councils in the likes of  Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) and Gorkha Territorial Administration ( GTA ). This paper explores selective memes to establish its context within the socio-political terrain of Darjeeling hills by utilizing theoretical framework established by media scholar Patrick Davison .