Locating WhatsApp in Indian Politics: History, Media Ecology, and Ideology

Since its inception in 2010, WhatsApp has grown to 500 million users in India, serving as a crucial election tool for the far-right ruling party, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), and as a platform to discuss politics for citizens of different political leanings. Existing research on WhatsApp has contributed valuable insights but remains restricted to the platform, suspended from history and its embeddedness in the broader Indian media ecology. To address this gap in the research, this chapter builds on a cultural materialist framework to situate technical-cultural forms in relation to political economy and socio-political contexts.