The Violence of Financial Inclusion - by Anil Shah (Paperback)

About the Book

The ascent of microfinance in India and its colonial roots - on the oppression of subaltern classes through indebtedness.

Book Synopsis

Financial inclusion appears as a timely development policy. Ostensibly, providing poor households with access to credit and other financial services contributes to sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Anil Shah reveals the colonial roots of microfinance and how these paved the way for its rise in the present. Drawing on empirical field research, he demonstrates how financial inclusion is the latest incarnation of a class-based mode of dominating and exploiting subaltern classes on the Indian subcontinent through gendered and racialised indebtedness. As such, he offers a vital resource for researchers, students, and policymakers working in the field of development finance.

About the Author

Anil Shah, born in 1989, is a lecturer in global political economy at Universität Kassel and a research associate at the chair for development and postcolonial studies. His PhD project emerged from a collaboration between Universität Kassel and the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bengaluru, India. His research draws inspiration from various theoretical, disciplinary and methodological traditions, and focuses primarily on the history and perseverance of violence and inequalities in global capitalism.