MEERUT, May 22 -- In the narrow lanes of Meerut's Sarrafa Bazaar, where the sound of gold polishing machines and hammering tools usually continues late into the night during the wedding season, an unusual silence has taken over. Showrooms that are typically crowded with families buying bridal jewellery now appear half-empty, while workers sit outside workshops waiting for orders that are no longer coming.

The anxiety spreading through the bullion markets of Meerut and Bareilly began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a recent public gathering in Hyderabad amid the ongoing West Asia crisis, appealed to citizens to avoid buying gold for a year in the interest of the national economy. What was projected as a call for "economic patri...