Gold in India Commodity, Culture, and Economic Circuits

India is developing as a global gold powerhouse. Yet its intricate web of trade and transformations remains largely overlooked in scholarly research. This book delves into the economic significance and cultural currency of gold in India. Drawing on insights from economic sociology, political economy and history, it combines comprehensive fieldwork with archival research to explore the circuits of gold - looking at legal and illegal imports, refining, trade, craft and mechanised production, retail and re-export. Through multidisciplinary research, it relates the roles of gold in the building and sharing of familial and gendered wealth, in the diversity of rural economic life and in women's sexuality, subordination and agency to a range of issues in state policy. It shows how exploring the quiddity of gold offers a perfect plot to deepen our understanding of the socially regulated Indian economy.