Swarajya, February 2, 1963
The Gold Control regulations have not only created disorder and distress among a numerous class of artisans but have also opened, what may turn out to be a new chapter of evasions and disrespect for the law. They have laid the axe at the root of what may be truly described as an old and most useful institution in this country. The yellow metal was not merely a beautiful thing and a common standard superior to the paper currency. It was the honest and industrious family’s village-bank, which served as a most trustworthy savings bank with no difficult forms and inaccessible counters for the illiterate. It served as an incentive for saving, besides being a most reliable bank in the remotest village. But the Gold Regulations have proved that there is nothing too well-established but it can be broken up and put in the scrap heap by a single-party government. It can be as truly as sadly enunciated that the peasants and artisans will have now no incentive to save, and no means to secure their small savings, even if they did save.
If smuggling of gold has to be stopped, it should be done in a straightforward way by rigorous and honest enforcement. If people should be educated not to put too much into gold but give the surplus money to Government, it should be done in a straightforward way, too, by education and by giving to the people a vigorous and honest administration which gives the people a sixteen-anna rupee for a sixteen-anna taxation.
A number of representations from goldsmiths have been submitted to the Government from all over the country. Copies of these humble petitions have been sent to me. I do not know what these people in distress expect me to do. The whole of this jewellery control affair is, in my opinion, ill-conceived and is the result of entrusting power to a party which has been committed to the creed of harassing interference in the quiet life of the people. The men clothed with authority—I wish I could say brief authority— have no hesitation in making rules and passing all kinds of orders interfering with the business and the profession of people, in which they have no knowledge whatsoever, and without previous consultations with the honest and patriotic members of the class of people affected by those rules and orders. Millions of families who have been doing a specialized artistic trade, which is a near-essential in the life of almost all classes of people in India and which requires skill of hand and suitable material, are in sore distress because of the Gold Control orders. This is only one instance of what follows, and must be expected to follow, from voting for a party which believes in total power and in total interference in the life of the people, and which has scant respect for the manners and customs of the country. The next elections are not near and the ruling clique expects to do something before then to make people forget what they are now made to suffer. One hopes that the people will not so forget but mark their disapproval in a striking manner.
The Gold Control regulations have not only created disorder and distress among a numerous class of artisans but have also opened, what may turn out to be a new chapter of evasions and disrespect for the law. They have laid the axe at the root of what may be truly described as an old and most useful institution in this country. The yellow metal was not merely a beautiful thing and a common standard superior to the paper currency. It was the honest and industrious family’s village-bank, which served as a most trustworthy savings bank with no difficult forms and inaccessible counters for the illiterate. It served as an incentive for saving, besides being a most reliable bank in the remotest village. But the Gold Regulations have proved that there is nothing too well-established but it can be broken up and put in the scrap heap by a single-party government. It can be as truly as sadly enunciated that the peasants and artisans will have now no incentive to save, and no means to secure their small savings, even if they did save. The habits of other peoples of the world and arguments encountered in world-wide begging for Plans have confused the understanding of our rulers and caused them to doing what they never should have done. If smuggling of gold has to be stopped, it should be done in a straightforward way by rigorous and honest enforcement. If people should be educated not to put too much into gold but give the surplus money to Government, it should be done in a straightforward way, too, by education and by giving to the people a vigorous and honest administration which gives the people a sixteen-anna rupee for a sixteen-anna taxation.
