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The word 'meme' was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book ``The Selfish Gene,' as an attempt to explain the way cultural information spreads. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena within a mimic theme. Memes started on the Internet in 1996 with the first-ever viral sensation of a baby dancing on 'cha-cha-cha' (3D dancing baby). With its growing popularity, it has become a means of influencing the mindset of people who view, follow and share these memes. Memes have a potential to focus on real-world issues which when consumed by a user influences them to share it further thus leading to its large consumption. Memes can be denoted as; 'Amplification by Simplification' which basically means they have a potential to condense a complex political fact into a powerful, brief and an effective way which engages a large audience. Hence, it is becoming a powerful tool for communication. In the following paper, we attempt to understand how Internet memes are used to communicate political issues in India. For this, the method of content analysis will be used to observe the practice of memes and its role will be scrutinised to reflect whether it is creating a new paradigm shift in the political discourse. The amount of viewership and type of comments posted will also be a way to gauge the response of the audience. Also, by understanding the relationship between political memes and the Indian audience, we will be able to study whether these memes help in changing the perception of the audience if at all. Moreover, if they do, what are the factors which help the meme becomes an easy tool to affect the audience's political perceptions.

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