Memetic Disruption

How Internet Memes Challenge and Transform Traditional Power Hierarchies in the Guru-Shishya Relationship

Abstract

This paper examines how memes function as catalysts within the Indian classical dance community, challenging entrenched hierarchies of caste, class, and authority in traditional guru-shishya pedagogical structures. Using humor and visual storytelling, memes created and circulated by anyone with access to digital platforms validate lived experiences of exclusion, foster solidarity among users, and offer an accessible yet subversive mode of resistance against pedagogical authority. Memes are treated here as participatory digital artifacts that reflect and critique the power dynamics embedded within Indian classical dance pedagogy. In doing so, the study contributes to ongoing conversations about power relations between gurus and disciples, tradition, and critique—proposing memes as tools that both contest and reimagine modes of learning and belonging.