In 1933, amid the Great Depression, President Franklin D Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102, effectively confiscating most privately held American citizens’ gold to bolster US Fed reserves and reflate the economy at below market prices. Americans largely complied — partly out of patriotism, partly out of fear of stiff penalties. The result? The US Federal Reserve became (and remains) the world’s largest official holder of gold, a cornerstone of US national financial strength. Contrast that with India in 1968. Finance Minister Morarji Desai, a staunch Gandhian, enacted the Gold Control Act to stem a crippling foreign-exchange drain after the 1962 China war and 1965 Pakistan war. Private ownership of gold bars and coins was banned; holdings had to be converted into jewellery and declared. Goldsmiths and dealers faced strict limits. Desai believed Indians would respond as they had during the freedom struggle to the call given by Mahatma Gandhi — by embracing swadeshi restraint and recycling existing gold.…