The Significance of Gold in India and the Diaspora

By Dr. Kumar Mahabir & Shalima Mohammed

Gold holds immense cultural, economic and symbolic significance in India and its diaspora. In India, gold is deeply embedded in cultural traditions and rituals, representing wealth, prosperity and auspiciousness.

It is an integral part of weddings, festivals and religious ceremonies, often passed down through generations as heirlooms. Beyond its cultural value, gold plays a pivotal role in the Indian economy, serving as a form of savings, investment and financial security. In many diaspora communities, gold is not just a precious metal but a tangible connection to Indian heritage, fostering a sense of identity and belonging.

The following are excerpts of a ZOOM public meeting (11/02/2024) on the topic “The significance of gold (jewellery, dentistry, etc) in India and the Diaspora.” The Pan-Caribbean and Global Indian Diaspora webinar was moderated by Shalima Mohammed of Trinidad and chaired by Showbi Ally of England. The meeting was hosted by the Indo-Caribbean Cultural Centre (ICC).

The speakers were DR. SHUCHI GUPTA, a lecturer in the history department at CCS University, Uttar Pradesh, India, and a documentary filmmaker, and art and jewellery inquisitor; VIJAYAKUMAR KAMMAR, the director of global marketing with 30 years of experience as a business development, and marketing chief executive in forging, casting and CNC machining; JAYANT RANIGA, an experienced stakeholder in the luxury fine jewellery industry, doing design and manufacturing, following a heritage of over ten generations with his vision being to preserve heritage craftsmanship; and PROFESSOR JOY MAHABIR who is the author of three published articles on Indo-Caribbean jewellery and co-editor of the book Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women's Literature.

DR. SHUCHI GUPTA said: “Throughout the 16^th and 17^th centuries, we in India were a very stable society, and that was due to a single element that was present, which was gold. That is why we migrated as merchants and traders. It is a big discussion about who is responsible for the resultant economic downfall, whether it be political or economic political changes in polices, but the fact remains that gold was absent in the process of our people’s very pitiful condition of migration. Would history be the same if they were able to take these treasured pieces with them to the countries where they were indentured? No, everything would be different. This is the power of gold. That is why gold holds such importance to the girmitya [indentureds].”

VIJAYAKUMAR KAMMAR said: “In Indian society and amongst the Indian diaspora, gifting gold ornaments is an essential part of the culture. Weddings generate approximately 50% of the annual gold demand in India and the Indian diaspora. Now, if you look at the percentages of investment, it is around 75% for ornamentation, they use 60% for festivals, and the list goes on. So, with all the adverse economic diversification for over 500 years, India has emerged as an economic superpower mainly because of the strong fundamentals of a culturally driven economy, and this is the tagline of our Indian economy. It is a culturally driven economy in the sense that the traditional family runs businesses which helped the economy to power through the deterioration during colonial rule. Gold became the strength of India, and the entire world started looking at the country as an investment destination.”

JAYANT RANIGA said: “Trends are shifting now, so we are seeing that customers are now buying gold to admire as opposed to as an investment. It represents their own value system, and this is not necessarily to show off; this is for very personal consumption. This is about how they feel about their personal values and how it is represented in the pieces, which means that companies like ours are under pressure to not only create a fantastic design, but also create authenticity in terms of what does that design mean? Where does it come from? What is the craftsmanship that is involved? We as a company must continuously innovate, we must reimagine. For sure, I believe from the United Kingdom, I can tell you that like the rest of the world, and certainly like India and the Indian diaspora, gold is forever.”

DR. JOY MAHABIR said: “As women envisioned a better life for their children and their community during indentureship, they used their jewellery as collateral to secure loans for land, small businesses or their children's education…. When jewellery was crafted at homes, villagers would gather around to observe the process, and I think we need to read this as more than just an act of curiosity. What this communal assembly shows is that despite the brutalities of the colonial systems of slavery and indentureship, Caribbean people have forged their own ideas and appreciation of art and beauty. We have established our own aesthetic standards. Everywhere in the Caribbean and its diaspora, jewellery is intrinsic to Caribbean culture.”

Correspondence - Dr Kumar Mahabir, Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean. WhatsApp +1 868 756 4961. E-mail: dmahabir@gmail.com

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