Fact-check: Did Indira Gandhi urge citizens to stop buying gold in 1967?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to citizens to avoid buying gold for a year has created buzz. Amid online discussions on the Indian leader’s suggestion, many social media users shared a purported newspaper clipping from The Hindu dated June 6, 1967, of PM Indira Gandhi urging citizens to stop buying gold.

The picture soon went viral, with the headline reading: “Don’t Buy Gold, Indira Gandhi Tells People — Appeals for National Discipline." But is the image real?

We take a look.

Did Indira Gandhi ask people not to buy gold?

A purported front-page image of The Hindu has gone viral on social media, with the claim that PM Indira Gandhi asked citizens to stop gold purchases in the name of “national discipline” to save foreign exchange in 1967.

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Several users, including politicians, posted the clipping on X. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey was also among those who shared the image.

The clipping emerged after PM Modi called on citizens to return to Covid-era measures as the 10-week-old war in Iran has sparked a global energy crisis.

On Sunday (May 10), he asked people to use petrol and diesel with restraint, reduce overseas travel, and halt gold purchases for a year.

Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad, the Indian leader underlined that global fuel prices have surged and urged people to use public transport, work from home, and carpool to conserve fuel.

Underlining the pressure on India's foreign exchange reserves, Modi urged citizens to postpone non-essential gold purchases, including for weddings, for at least a year.

Is it real?

No.

The Hindu newspaper clipping has been digitally altered. The English daily did not publish a page with that headline in 1967.

“The first one is a digitally altered page being wrongly presented as the front page of The Hindu on June 6, 1967. The second is the actual page released that day. This is what social media is capable of; it can even alter the front page of India’s national English daily,” The Hindu journalist B Kolappan wrote in a post on X.

The Hindu has also officially issued a clarification on social media on Thursday (May 12), writing, “A digitally altered image purporting to be a front page of The Hindu from June 6, 1967, is currently circulating on social media. We wish to clarify that this is not an authentic page from our archives. The Hindu urges readers to exercise caution and verify before sharing.”

As per The Quint, The Hindu's library, which stores the archives of the news publication, confirmed that the viral image was altered.

Was there any restriction on buying gold?

There was, but it was not an "appeal". At the time, the Indira Gandhi government put limits on buying gold.

In 1968, Union Finance Minister Morarji Desai introduced the Gold Control Act, which banned citizens from owning gold bars or coins.

Under the Gold Control rules, goldsmiths were prohibited from possessing more than 100 grammes of gold for jewellery-making purposes. Licensed dealers were allowed to hold only limited quantities of gold and could not trade with one another.

The measures were rolled out to curb the demand for gold, stop smuggling, and protect the Indian Rupee.

Following India's war with Pakistan in 1965, Gandhi inherited a weakened economy. Drought triggered a food crisis, leading to famines. India was staring at its sharpest recession since Independence at the time.

The Gold Control Act was repealed in 1990.