All much-loved things — phenomena and people, both — go through a backlash at some point or another. For many months now, a sweet-faced and confident woman who knows her own mind and knows how to express it has been an Internet fave, and her turn to receive brickbats has come. Twenty-six-year-old Pujarini Pradhan, who goes by ‘Life of Pujaa’ on social media, currently has an Instagram follower count of 688K. She lives in the village of East Midnapore in West Bengal, and is a homemaker with a young child. In her reels, which are shot at home, she speaks about everything from books to politics to domestic life. Her thoughts are well-articulated in English, without heavy-handed academese or liberal jargon. In so many ways, she is refreshing. Recently, however, she has been the target of strong insinuations, and some outright accusations, that she is not “real”.
Her haters have largely been people, such as Otherwarya and Niharika Jain, who have themselves built careers as influencers. They accuse her of being an industry plant concocted by a brand or agency, and of being “inauthentic”. That she earns an income from her reels ought to be read for what it is: a form of empowerment within but also despite capitalist and patriarchal norms. This fact has instead been used against her.
While to the rest of us, Pujarini may feel wholesome and — yes — real, she is not at all relatable to the chunk of the web that prides itself on executing (that is, performing) impeccable liberal politics and executing (that is, punishing) anyone who makes a misstep. It is precisely from this privileged quarter that the backlash has arisen, and this is no surprise at all. Something about the existence of someone like Pujarini — a smart person from a simple background — threatens those who cannot fathom that real experiences and political praxis look very different offline than they do online. This is why she has been charged with inauthenticity.
In trying to unmask her, her haters have only shown how limited their real-world exposure is. Anyone who is actually engaged with and seriously observes the world, and the ways in which socio-political dynamics operate in it and progressive movements affect it would be more likely to be enthused by, rather than wary of, Pujarini. Who she is has been shaped by numerous civic gains, chiefly the democratisation of access — which is something that activists and leaders fought and still fight to ensure. To not believe that someone like her can be genuine is to not believe in the existence of rural libraries or the idea that intersectional feminist beliefs can not only proliferate in the culture, but that they are also informed by the very people they claim to study and to speak for. It is pure classism, not to mention a failure of the imagination, and perhaps the intellect, too.
The point of all progressive movements is to positively impact the lives of many, and positive impact looks a lot more like an ordinary person negotiating her life well than it does anything else. That’s what Pujarini does, and that’s what makes her content so appealing.