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India's love affair with gold

July 22, 2012 4:00 PM

"No gold, no wedding," is a saying in India, indicating the importance of gold to Indian culture and tradition. Byron Pitts reports on India's obsession with gold.

India's love affair with gold
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by candyguan17 September 15, 2012 10:46 PM EDT
Do they use cold for fake teeth when they get old? lol
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by globalcitizn July 28, 2012 10:18 PM EDT
This program does not do a good job in explaining why Indians buy gold, instead it raises more questions by interviewing wedding planners who cater to the rich and have no idea about the traditions. To understand that, you need to first understand, that Indians have been traditionally socialized to set aside a part of their earnings as savings.However, they do not trust banks or have no education about investments. The only investment they know is either buying land or buying gold. With 22-24 carat pure gold jewellery, they can convert their cash into something that is beautiful but also something that can be pawned/sold when liquid cash is needed. So the more gold you have, the more you had saved. In olden times, this gold was purchased as coins that were put in copper vessels and hidden in the house usually under the mud flooring. Many ppl found these vessels later on when old houses/fields were being repaired.

Now, the culture has changed where people have become ostentatious and buy jewellery to show off. However, their mistrust with banks & bonds still continues and gold is the only investment that most will consider. This is the reason that India was saved during the global economic meltdown because they did not invest in any company stocks. The British colonization has also played a huge role in ppl not trusting any corporate entities.

India has always had a love affair with gold since ages. The west is making a big deal out of it now becoz all the gold that Indians have invested in is upholding the country's economy which in turn is growing, thus giving ppl an ability to buy more gold. This fascination is again different from state to state, fr ex. in Kerala state, people buy ridiculous amount of gold and even wear all the gold while in other parts, two gold ornaments, that is the marriage thread (gold), necklace, earrings and bangles are traditional ornaments of women. No matter how much gold you have, married women have to wear silver anklets and toe-rings, no gold here.

Please do not blame america's economy on India's prosperity. The percentage of jobs that outsourcing has generated is very less and cannot be correlated with Indians buying gold. Even now Indians do not like buying anything on credit. They have to save to afford it and then buy it. America's condition is the result of greedy people who bought more than what they can chew on credit, while mortgage agents wanted to earn their commission. The rich people took the hard-earned money of the poor to fund their ridiculously lavish lifestyles while the govt is in bed with them. America's manufacturing industry has moved to china two decades back and killed many cities like detroit. Nobody made a sound when millions of blue-collar jobs left the country and continue to buy everything made in china. Now that a few hundred white-collar jobs are lost, there is a huge cribbing over outsourcing.

India never wanted globalization but it was forced into it because big companies wanted the 1 billion market that they can sell their stuff to. Well, they forgot that globalization is a two-way street and capitalism is a double-edged sword.
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by ThomTel July 25, 2012 11:20 PM EDT
India may well be having a love affair with gold...on the backs of the now starving jobless Americans!!!
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by yougogirl60 July 23, 2012 12:53 PM EDT
To each his own, but as a Christian Westerner this fascination with gold is so strange to me. Although I love the way Indians use bright colors in their fashions which I also love.
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