About memes & the meme patterns and flows in India

I am reading this fantastic book "The Meme Machine" by Susan Blackmore and this was the first time when actually thought of memes and their pattern and flow in Indian context. Here are some general insights and my 2 cents.

• meme was first coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’. He has also written a foreword for this book
• Susan’s book was preceeded by two other books entirely devoted to the subject of memes – Richard Brodie’s Virus of the Mind: The New Science of Meme and Aaron Lynch’s Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads through Society.
• Susan had also researched for mentions of some memes related term on the web 29th August 1998 and I am doing the same exactly more than a decade, today on 29th September 2008.

• Wikipedia definition of a meme:
• A meme (pronounced /miːm/)[1] consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, gestures, practices, fashions, habits, songs, and dances. Memes propagate themselves and can move through the cultural sociosphere in a manner similar to the contagious behavior of a virus.a

memes & India

• In India most of the memes have religious & political background. Since Kings, Emperors and Godmens held the highest authority most the memes originated from there. The caste system, festivals, rituals and many more such examples. These memes were religiously adopted in our lives and became the Indian tradition.
• India was high on memes during the freedom struggle. I think memes circulate fast when the society is close or come closer. The British Raj was thus a great opportunity for Indians to come together and create a memeplex of ‘Mutiny of 1857′, ‘The Quit India Movement’ and ‘The Swadesi’. Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra was not just the great leaders but leader who could also infect the Indian with real & highly charged memes.
• In recent times religious groups have utilized / exploited media to spread the memes in very effective way. Many gods have been re-discovered, my brands of religion and godmen have cropped up giving rise to memes that were long forgotten. It’s cool to be religious again.
• The constant meme in politics has always been ‘the politics of religion’, ‘the politics of hatred’ and ‘the politics of divide’. From ancient rulers, to british raaj to current politicians, they all have used the same formula and the same ingredients and they are still doing good.
• The mass followed meme in India has always been Bollywood & Cricket and primarily because they both are high on passive engagement and sort of escapist memes.
• The most important meme carriers in India are - Marriages and Festivals – song, dance, culture, sub-cultures, food, fashion and thousand other sub memes are actually alive and are getting passed on to other generations because Indian enjoy & celebrate festivals and the marriages like anything. In India Marriage is not the union of just two individuals but two families.
• The modern memes in India are now driven by the middle class. The middle class and the upper middle class who caused the ‘brain drain’ were the early adoptors of ‘global economy’ and introduced our IITs & Indian Minds to the western world. Western world realized that instead of paying these guys equal on their land, they can ‘outsource’ the work and make the dollar work to the fullest. On the Indian turf, the liberalization, privatization, outsourcing & the reverse brain drain created massive permutation and combinations of opportunities. So at the same times where communisims, religion and reservations are at work – the middle class is the forerunner is bringing positiveness to this country and was able to run and participate in the parallel memes.

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