Translating the Local and the Global: Microfinance in Hyderabad, India

Abstract

This paper discusses the dicursive methods through which ' the poor' in Hyderabad, have been involved in and introduced to the 'global' financial markets through micro-finance projects. By analyzing the disturbing occurences of deaths surrounding Bharat Financial Inclusion LTD's microfinance loan recipients as well as their advertising tactics, Cilman examines how scales of 'global' and 'local' can be used to create the subject of 'the poor' for the consumption of transnational audiences, and how these abstract projects exert power over ordinary people towards real and dire consequences.