FB Discussions - The purpose of Gold

November 6, 2015 at 11:21pm · 

For the poor woman, gold is an asset. It is on her body, and will not be taken away even by a drunk husband. In times of need she pawns it, and slowly redeems it in small painful installments. When there is a little money at home a pair of silver anklets are bought for the girl or woman. If there is some more money the some gold is purchased. Both can be pawned.

The educated who laugh may please work towards better support systems, and property rights for the woman (assuming the family does has some property to decide in whose name to place it !) - and till then not deride the gold she possesses. That is the poor woman's strength today. And when a girl gets married, any girl from a poor family, the gold given to her is publically seen and respected as hers.

Any lady you know - a maid if you have maids, a neighbour if you live with the poor - you can gift her gold during the wedding.

 

Comments

Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula Tamilnadu first state to give equal property rights/inheritance to women in 1989!

Piyush Manush Why do u have to ignore facts and twist them to suit your fancies .. this whole gold giving business and expecting gold in marriage by in laws even if it belongs to the bride has led to such serious imbalances ... & for this to be institutionalised by the powers esp the mad modi is the most dangerous step for all..

Gyan Mitra I remember reading about the GOLD backed $ bill which could be redeemed in an equivalent amount of gold. At some time in the 1900's, the U.S.A. began to use currency which was not backed with gold, but the Petroleum commerce. I only refer to this because there is a lot of information now about it. But India does the same thing so the lady who wanted a loan has to pay interest when she should have been getting it at par with the value of gold without having to pay interest. Farmers too take loans from the money lenders and commit suicide when their crops fail. The money lenders have been given their niche by the government and even society for being an alternate banking system. Money lenders are important for conversion of colour of money. The only solution is to introduce a GREEN ECONOMY where this lady can barter her gold for material goods which she needs ( without interest ), at a price suited to buyer and seller. This the the monetary aspect of the social business model. Islamic interest therefore interests me as we can learn from a tried and tested model.

Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula Most of the agricultural loans given are in fact jewel loans. A few years ago RBI even censured the banks for doing that.

Livestock and Gold are insurance against short term cash flow problems which in many a case can ruin people's lives.

I'm for gold but against gold bonds.

Aparna Krishnan Piyush Manush, I hold no brief for the PM, and you know it. Regarding gold for women, I spent decades resisting it, including 'preaching', and stopping wearing any gold. Only living in the village showed me how it is the woman's personal and only asset, which assures her rice for her children with the usurious local money lender. I can refuse to wear gold because I can insure myself with a bank passbook, and an FD. If I refuse her her gold, I need to refuse myself the bank account and FD also.

Aparna Krishnan I know well these are grey and problematic spaces, because we live in a highly unfair and compromised world. As you are painting a b/w picture, I am offering you the other real perspective as well.

 

Aparna Krishnan I would wish Munishwari, landless (so no equal inheritence law has any purpose for her ) and assetless, all the gold I could. With her drunk husband she needs some asset on her body, inviolable, that she can pawn for rice for her daughters and fodder for her cows. TILL SUCH TIME, as I can empower her to be as secured as me any my clan. 

Sunny Narang There is no simple reply as most times . Proudhon the Anarchist said "Property is Theft" . The Communists took all land and collectivised it , the collectives failed, because land is living, it has to be touched and loved . It needs families and communities over generations, it is not a factory . 

Then came cash currency , I say " All Cash is Fraud" , as due to many complex reasons including inflation and external trade it reduces , the same rupee is 10-20% less in value the next year . How does one explain this to most people , forget villagers , most middle-class do not get it. Even in a FD the return is not enough to cover the loss . Only mutual funds and good ones can give that return. Or good real-estate . For normal people Gold and physical gold as Komakkambedu Himakiran Anugula says is safety against the Centralised State . Nothing else comes close as a liquid holder-of-value . I would never buy Modi's gold bonds . I am then again dependent on a bureaucracy whose policies may change again . The Indian peoples thankfully have never trusted any king or centre . All states are exploitative , in terms of trade towards the country or land or villagers as they need to extract value for the city civilisation and armies. So I agree with you gold gifts to the girl or long-term recurring deposits in her name , so I have done so in the villages where it was possible, a 5 year RD scheme and I gave the first year's as support and parents then followed it. Actually the biggest issue is when a girl gets married and goes to a new home. She cannot ask for cash till her relationship with mother-in-law is decent . So even a cash gift as pocket money for few months is good.

 

Gyan Mitra The peer pressure for a security for the girl child is so much that a good friend from Kerala who was between jobs asked me for a loan of money ( which I could not give at that time ) to buy gold for his baby daughter's ceremony. The wife then asked him to borrow money to buy the gold, and it made no sense to me. My friend said it would be perceived badly by the community. But I do understand that it is a gesture of empowerment to the girl child. My concern is for how long will the money obtained against the gold last and the rising debt against the loan ? Mother Nature never meant this hardship for her children and planned for dividend from her bounty. Ignorance and carelessness of a greedy, lazy and stupid few have created havoc in society.

Gyan Mitra The root causes are two viz destruction of the Eco systems and the Monetary system. Both are created by man.