I don't agree, at least in the case of India, there have been other places to put your money for a long time. However all of those require funds that have known sources and on which taxes have been paid. There is a huge amount of funds in India in the "parallel economy" which can not be invested in these funds, the only options are to hold as cash or invest in real property (land/gold). Historically gold has been a good investment in India. See https://www.apnaplan.com/gold-price-in-india-40-years-histor...

Also worth noting that a financial instrument like an index fund is not something easy to understand for a very large, rural, not highly educated population. It's a fact that there are large Indian states where the literacy rate is between 60-70% vs 98%+ in countries where intangible investment products are popular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_states_and_unio...

Gold is something you can see and hold. In countries with 10%+ inflation rates, an investment that returns 4-8% is also different than, for example, a mutual fund in the US that returns 6-8% which is significantly over the US/Canadian inflation rate.

Trust is also not freely available in developing or poorer countries, so being able to see and hold something is more important. In the US, the incidence of theft* is so low that you can trust your electronic accounts won't be emptied, and if they are, you have a court/regulatory system that will make you whole. This is an important asset for developed countries to have as it greatly reduces transaction costs, whereas in developing countries, people have to deal with worrying about what happens if they get on the wrong side of someone who has influence.

*Ignoring the constant devaluation of money to prop up asset prices.

> The Stock Market, index funds etc.

> not deadweight like commodities.

I find it rather oxymoronic

Why? The numbers show commodities are a poorer store of value than equities.