My case study focuses on how Hinduism is portrayed in memes in today's popular culture. Specifically, I am looking at certain Hindu religious beliefs and practices that are commonly portrayed in memes. These religious beliefs and cultural practices that I am focusing on are Hindu’s belief in reincarnation, the traditional wearing of the Bindi, their respect for cows, and the celebration of Diwali. I decided to study these beliefs and practices because of their continuous recurrence in Memes. Due to the fact that they are commonly presented in memes I was intrigued to understand why they were so commonly utilized. This led me to do some research and study various memes related to Hinduism. Based on this research, I realized that these are some of the central core beliefs of Hinduism. Also, they are commonly known beliefs to outsiders of the Hindu religion. So, not only do Hindu audiences find these memes to be comical, but outsider populations do as well. An example of a meme that I have used in my sample is a meme that says “I can not swear at your mother because cows are sacred in our country”. This meme is an exemplar meme because it addresses one of the Hindu beliefs or traditions I am studying, specifically the Hindu’s respect for cows, and it has a comedic frame surrounding it that makes it relatable to insiders of the Hindu community but also comical for outsiders of the Hindu religion. My strategy for selecting memes for my blog, included searching Google Images for memes that are either about beliefs or rituals belonging to Hindu's or searching memes about Hindu stereotypes. From there, I analyzed the memes to see what values, traditions, or stereotypes were continuously repeated through various memes. The memes that I choose must feature a stereotype or use comedy to portray the specific Hindu beliefs, rituals, or traditions that I previously mentioned earlier in this blog. The stereotypes I have chosen to focus on are stereotypes regarding the four beliefs and traditions that I am studying. These stereotypes are normally portrayed in a comedic but also sarcastic way that makes these memes comical for online viewers. I believe these memes relate to the religion's actual understanding of these beliefs because these memes are stereotypes. Which hold a lot of truth. If anything, these memes are accurate in terms of what Hindus believe, but they put a comedic frame around these beliefs in order to reach a larger audience, including members of Hinduism and non members. This is done in order to spread these ideas and values, therefore educating, Hindus and non-Hindus.
Offline religious culture sets the standards for what should be considered authentic/orthodox understandings of religion online because it tells members what are socially acceptable ways to utilize the media. Specifically for Hinduism, an article mentioned in a previous blog, mentions some offline standards that are then applied online to make their behaviors online authentic/orthodox. An article written by Stephen Jacobs titled Communicating Hinduism in a Changing Media Context explains that it is important to Hinduism to utilize the media to its advantage because media effects how Hinduism is not only perceived by the public, but how it is practice by the members of its community (Jacobs). The most important thing media can do is to to establish Hinduism as an official and active religious community. Media is also vital to the religion in order to educate people and spread religious texts to people all over the world to promote this religion (Jacobs). Education through media can be seen through a variety of sites Hindu online users have created, that provide other users with information regarding Hinduism, about specific Hindu religious groups, certain temples, specific services, and they even have online sacred rituals one can perform (Jacobs). After hearing this reasoning and realizing that these offline traditions can be put online to promote this religion, it makes all of the actions online justified and authentic. An example of offline traditions that are put online to spread Hinduism are mentioned in an article titled Desktop deities: Hindu temples, online cultures and the politics of remediation. This article describes some of the offline practices and rituals that can now be found online such as online temples, the commercial puja site, and the Hindu discourse site (Mallapragada). Based off of my first source, the websites mentioned in my second source are seen as orthodox/ authentic because they aid in the offline value of promoting Hinduism, and are helping to make it a “world religion” (Jacobs). The online memes about the offline stereotypes of Hinduism do challenge Hinduism because at the end of the day, these memes are stereotyping and almost making fun of Hinduism. These stereotypes at times can undermine the values and beliefs of this culture, and can make their traditions seem “weird” or “odd” to people that do not come from this culture, which is wrong. Based on my research, the relationship between online and offline meanings and messages communicated about religion through memes is blending. The online and offline Hinduism is interconnected and there is a flow between these two aspects of the religion. They seem to work together and utilize each other in order to educated Hindus and non Hindus on the offline religious practices by putting them online.
1. https://i.imgflip.com/nnk6n.jpg
2. http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/93/935ce6cd80fc11f50ab5c1f7b8178858ac527075ac311fd441c858de4dd1853b.jpg
Works Cited:
Jacobs, S. B. (2012). Communicating Hinduism in a changing media context. Religion Compass, 6(2), doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00333.x
Mallapragada, M. (2010). Desktop deities: Hindu temples, online cultures and the politics of remediation.
South Asian Popular Culture, 8(2), 109-121.doi:10.1080/14746681003797955
