Description
This article analyses memes as expressions of digital participatory cultures that are increasingly becoming the central sites of virulent and volatile political discourse within the context of rise of right-wing authoritarianism in India. It seeks to contribute to the burgeoning literature on linkages between visuality and violence by decentring and understanding memes from the non-western perspective. The article investigates the rise of the alt-right online ecosystem with self-styled civilisational warriors named ‘trads’ using memes for spreading polarizing narratives through widely circulated memes that coalesce into the larger discourse on the self and the other in the digital context and is reflective of ontological (in)security. Memes are carriers of socially mediated popular imaginary that insinuates threat to and feeds into the anxiety of a Hindu majority. The study of the alt-right memetic political discourse in India, helps in understanding the larger global language of online culture wars whilst simultaneously reimagining security and identity construction in the digital realm
