In this short note, I examine India’s hawala trade and what it reveals about capital controls, financial repression, and the Indian state’s instinct to control private wealth.

When governments make normal foreign transactions expensive, cumbersome, or intrusive, informal systems naturally emerge. Hawala is not merely a criminal curiosity; it is also a response to mistrust, bureaucracy, taxation, and the desire to move money outside the reach of arbitrary authority.

Read the full note at International Man →