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1 - A Political Economy of Gold in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2025

Anindita Chakrabarti
Affiliation:
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Barbara Harriss-White
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

FLOWS AND CIRCUITS OF GOLD IN INDIA

Gold has been unaccountably neglected as an object of study. In this chapter, to remedy this dearth of scholarship, we use a systems approach to political economy and reconnoitre the material circuits of gold, its institutional ‘ecosystem’, relations of power and control and their impact on the distribution of wealth. In tracing the pathways and connections between its production, distribution and consumption, we pursue how and why the system of gold has continually adapted in response to a series of public policy interventions by the state, which it mostly acts to avoid. Our sources have ranged from official data, specialised press and business association reports, academic analyses and think-tank reports to granular ethnographies steeped in local field experiences. In scratching the surface, this overview – and our volume – shows how and why much more scholarly effort is needed to mine the political economy of gold.

India's gold does not originate in India. Local mining hardly figures in quantitative terms. Gold originates elsewhere but comes to India in the form of bullion or of mine-head alloys known as doré,1 mainly through Dubai, whose gold economy is umbilically connected to India’s. A great – and mostly informal – refining industry is growing in the north of India to purify the imported doré, while local scrap gold is largely recycled in the south.2 By-products from doré, such as silver, disappear into other workshops in the informal economy. Some of the new doré refineries are being added to corporate portfolios that also include other precious metals and gemstones.

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Type
Chapter
Information
Gold in India
Commodity, Culture, and Economic Circuits
, pp. 32 - 78
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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