This paper examines how the rapid adoption of digital technologies, particularly WhatsApp, is reshaping public and private life in urban India. Drawing on recent ethnographic fieldwork in Bengaluru and long-term research on migration and development in the Global South, it explores how WhatsApp groups are transforming citizen-state relations, social networks, and labor markets, playing a critical role in the ongoing urban transition.
As new jobs emerge in industries like sales, logistics, and management, many do not align with the traditional forms of human capital tied to caste or familial networks. First-generation learners and other urban actors, without the generational guidance typically provided in more static rural or agrarian contexts, rely on WhatsApp as a key tool for navigating these challenges. WhatsApp groups have become crucial platforms for managing segmented job markets, interfacing with the state, and building networks in rapidly changing urban environments.
This study reveals how these digital platforms bridge gaps in knowledge and access to opportunities while also creating new forms of exclusion and segmentation. WhatsApp groups operate across multiple scales—connecting family networks, caste and religious communities, segmented professions, and industry hierarchies. They also serve as spaces for civic engagement, education, and advertising, illustrating the complexity of these new digital publics.
This paper thus raises critical questions about the role of digital technologies in shaping social and economic inequalities in urban India. What divides are reinforced by these new digital publics, particularly across linguistic and caste lines? How do WhatsApp groups contribute to the segmentation of labor markets and the vertical integration of industries? What are the broader implications of this digital mediation for governance, social cohesion, and development? Through ethnographic insights, the paper argues that understanding these dynamics is essential to grasping the deeper transformations taking place in India’s urban transition.