Reimagining Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) Through Digital Archives: Social Media, Regional Identity, and Cultural Memory in the Tamil Diaspora

This study examines how diasporic Tamil communities use social media platforms and digital archives to preserve, negotiate, and transmit cultural memory in transnational contexts. Focusing on community-driven Instagram pages, Facebook groups, and participatory digital archives, the research investigates the ways in which Tamil identity is articulated and maintained beyond geographic homeland. Using digital ethnography and qualitative content analysis, the study analyses posts, visuals, captions, and comment interactions across a selected set of diaspora-run Tamil cultural pages. Findings reveal that diasporic Tamils strategically use language, ritual imagery, food nostalgia, oral histories, and everyday cultural practices to construct a shared sense of belonging online. Social media functions simultaneously as an archive, a community space, and a site of identity performance, enabling intergenerational transmission of Tamil cultural memory. The study contributes to digital humanities and diaspora studies by demonstrating how regional identity, specifically Tamil identity, adapts, survives, and evolves in digitally mediated environments.