Those who lived through the brief but brutal border war with China in the high Himalayas in 1962 still remember the trauma it caused. But most of them seem to have forgotten a very significant but, alas, aborted offshoot of it. What appeared on the Indian scene like the wind and disappeared like the whirlwind was the Gold Control Order through which the Nehru government unsuccessfully tried to weaken — no one could dream of eliminating it — this country’s age-old addiction to the yellow metal.

It later transpired that Nehru, Krishna Menon and some other ministers had been pressing Morarji Desai, then finance minister, to “do something” to reduce the country’s apparently insatiable hunger for gold that was causing serious damage to the economy. Officially, the import of gold was banned, of course, and the Kolar goldfields, the only ones in the country, produced precious little of the precious metal so much in demand. Consequently, the smuggling of gold into India became a high-profit international industry. Thanks to collusion by the Customs and the police, the risk was relatively low. And since payments for the smuggled gold were usually made through hawala, the rupee’s external value was constantly eroded. Desai agreed that the dangerous drain had to be stemmed. But nothing was done.

It was the 1962 War, seen at that time as a military debacle and a political disaster, that gave the government the opportunity to push through gold control. Initially, the shock of the Chinese advance down the Himalayan slopes had shattered national morale. But almost immediately the nation rallied round the government to defend India’s frontiers and freedom. The response to Nehru’s appeal for contributions in cash and, even more, in gold and jewelry was staggering. At public meeting after public meeting in various parts of the country, women in the audiences would remove all the jewelry they wore, except their wedding rings, and donate it for the country’s defence. “Ornaments for Armaments” became the buzzword. Even at those days’ prices, the value of the jewelry so donated was estimated at Rupees 50 crores.

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