Politics of microcredit and identities

From Sufia Uddin's 2009 article Engaging with Islamist parties:
"Political Islamists target any and all ‘un-Islamic’ activities, including those that take women outside the home. Journalist Jeremy Seabrook has accurately portrayed the tensions between Islamists and secularist-oriented NGOs, arguing that the secularists no longer effectively protect or represent the poor. Soon after Bangladesh’s independence, many NGOs began to spring up to perform the functions that government was incapable of fulfilling, serving the poor through rural development, micro-credit, and small business programmes.

According to Seabrook, ‘Micro-credit releases people from moneylenders, who enforce interest rates of 10 per cent per month. If people cannot pay, [the lenders] sequester the goods, houses, cattle or labour of the poor. Micro-credit disturbs traditional patterns of hierarchy and dependence. Rural elites, seeing their power diminished, are then ready to ally themselves with fundamentalists to restore their control over the poor. Indeed, this is a significant element in the rise of fundamentalism.’4 The elite and the Islamists create roadblocks that make it difficult for nongovernmental organizations to work with the poor, especially poor women. The effort to make women self-reliant and financially independent threatens traditional power dynamics."
A different type of politics seems to have played a role in A.P. crisis according to Rohini Mohan's article Money for nothing. And misery for free:
"Microcredit is a deeply political weapon in AP. Some 11 million women, and nine in ten rural households are touched by SHGs. For politicians, these already mobilised women are akin to a votebank. “Women love me because I’m associated with the rise of SHGs in AP,” says Naidu.

In 2004, Congress’ late YS Rajasekhara Reddy had robbed Naidu of that claim by his historic paavla vaddi. Banks would now lend to SHGs at 3 percent instead of 12 percent. Women and other similarly mollified groups swept YSR to power. Two times. Naidu is trying to reclaim his votebank. But in trying to rattle the state government, he has done greater damage. He has messed with credit discipline."
SufiaUddin is the author of Constructing Bangladesh ,sample chapter:
Islamic Themes in Premodern Bengali Literature and Life . According to Tapan Raychaudhuri review of the book Constructing Bangladesh: Religion, Ethnicity, and Language in an Islamic Nation "The monograph focuses primarily on the development of the Muslim community in Bengal and is excellent in its treatment of the diverse forces that fed into it and resulted in a persistent diversity. The emphasis is on the cultural dimension of the process. The political processes and their economic foundations are somewhat neglected." and goes on to discuss the underemphasized politics of identity in her book.