In every Indian home, somewhere deep in an old Godrej locker, wrapped in red velvet
or inside a biscuit tin, there’s gold. Not just any gold, but the kind passed down from
grandmothers to daughters-in-law, the kind bought for weddings, births, or that one
time when appa got a bonus. For us Indians, gold isn’t just metal. It’s memory, emotion,
tradition, and trust, all glimmering under a 40 watt tube light during a family gathering.
But this love story isn’t new. It started centuries ago! Back when Roman ships docked at
Muziris to trade wine and silver for Indian spices and gold. Foreigners always
wondered, why are Indians so obsessed with gold? Even today, we hold more privately
owned gold than any other country. Yes, more than even the US or China. Households in
India are estimated to hold around 25,000 tonnes of gold. That's more than what many
countries have in their central banks combined. Every time the price of gold goes up,
someone in India is either celebrating or complaining there’s no middle ground.
You see, we have always looked at gold as more than just jewellery. It’s insurance, not
the LIC kind, but real, physical wealth you can touch when the world goes upside down.
Back in 1991, when India was facing a terrible financial crisis, our government literally
had to send 67 tonnes of gold to London as collateral for a loan. Our gold saved the day.
Since then, both the Reserve Bank of India and ordinary folks have made it a point to
never underestimate the power of yellow metal.
But where does all this gold come from? Not from Indian soil, that’s for sure. While India
does have some gold mines like in Karnataka where we barely produce 1-2 tonnes a
year. That’s not even enough to cover a week of our wedding season demand. So, we
import it. Tons and tons of it. Mostly from Switzerland, the UAE, and South Africa. Every
month, planes land carrying bricks of gold bars that get melted, molded, shaped, and
eventually land in a velvet box at your neighborhood jeweller’s store. But this love isn’t
cheap. The government slaps an import duty which was once as high as 15%, but
recently brought down to around 6% to curb smuggling plus GST, plus making charges.
So the gold you buy is not just gold it’s gold with a lot of taxes sprinkled on top.
Goldsmiths, the unsung heroes of this glittery industry, sit in cramped workshops in
places like Thrissur, Rajkot, and Kolkata, crafting magic with bare hands. They melt
down gold in tiny crucibles, blow through pipes to shape molten metal, and spend hours
engraving the tiniest details onto a jhumka. In Thrissur alone, over 40,000 artisans work
with gold every single day, making over 500 kilograms of gold jewellery. That’s more
than the weight of an entire elephant in gold!
But it’s not always a profitable trade. When gold prices rise too high, customers hesitate.
They postpone purchases, they recycle old jewellery they go for lighter designs.
Goldsmiths feel the pinch. Their margins shrink. Making charges usually 8-18% barely
cover labor and rent. But when the season is good, especially during weddings and
festivals like Diwali and Akshaya Tritiya, it’s like Diwali for their business too.
Now, things have changed. Gold has moved from lockers to lockers ans screens. You
don’t have to go to jewellery shop anymore to buy gold. You can do it on your phone.
Digital gold lets you buy even 0.1 gram it sits safely in a vault somewhere while you sip
chai and check prices on an app. Then there are Sovereign Gold Bonds, which are like
buying gold from the government, but smarter. You get 2.5% interest every year, and
when you sell after maturity no capital gains tax. Pretty sweet deal, though this scheme
was discontinued recently. Still, the older bonds remain popular. Then there are ETFs
gold traded like shares on the stock market. Convenient, clean, and zero making
charges.
Of course, if you ask your mother, she’ll still prefer the physical kind. Something she can
touch, polish, and maybe wear to the next family function. Digital gold? She’ll squint at
your phone and say, “Khanna, Who knows whether it is real or not.
Now let’s talk numbers. As of 2025, the price of gold has reached record highs. One tola
(that’s 10 grams) is hovering around ₹93,000. Blame it on global uncertainty, wars,
inflation, interest rates but gold has once again proved that in times of panic, it shines
the brightest. Central banks around the world are buying gold like never before. India’s
RBI bought 57.5 tonnes last year. Even countries like Poland and China are hoarding
gold, quietly preparing for anything the world throws at them. This demand keeps
prices up, and for investors, that’s good news.
But will this last forever? Probably not. When the world calms down, when inflation is
tamed, when interest rates are attractive again, gold might lose some of its sparkle.
That’s why smart investors don’t put everything into gold. It’s great to have some say
10-15% of your portfolio but balance is key. Too much gold, and you’re just sitting on
wealth that doesn’t grow. Too little, and you miss out on protection when everything
else goes down.
And let’s not forget the funny side of it. In India, people hide gold in the strangest places
under tiles, inside pressure cookers, even behind framed gods on the wall. Every time
the Income Tax Department raids a politician’s house, there’s a new gold hiding
technique going viral. And when you go to a wedding and aunties start comparing
necklaces, you’ll hear lines like “is it 24-carat?,” even when it’s clearly not. But we don’t
correct them it’s all part of the drama.
So, the next time you hold a gold coin, or admire that heavy bridal necklace, remember:
it’s not just metal. It’s history, politics, economics, emotion, and a little bit of drama all
rolled into one. It’s the one thing that has survived kings, empires, colonizers,
demonetization, and even cryptocurrencies.
Gold doesn’t just glitter. In India, it glows! with meaning, memory, and magic. And
whether you wear it, invest in it, or simply admire it in a shop window, know this:
you’re not just looking at an ornament. You’re looking at a 5,000-year-old love story that
still hasn’t gone out of style!
