A Strip of Land Two Yards Long: Sahitya Akademi Award Winning Urdu Novel

A Strip’ of Land Two Yards Long (Do Gaz Zameen), a novel set in Bihar (India), Bangladesh and Pakistan deals with the life of a cross-section of people in the Indian sub-continent and the complex issue of loyalty they face. The novel is significant for its characterization, its lucidity of style and portrayal of problems.

The novel is the story of a small but respectable family of a town in Bihar with feudal links. Caught in the vortex of the pre-Partition politics of the Congress and the Muslim League, the family disintegrates as a result of the riots, migration to East Pakistan (later Bangladesh), the abolition of Zamindari, and the confiscation of urban property by the custodians as evacuee property. All this not only reduces the family to destitution but also makes it alien to its homeland.

For its perception of cultural identity as shaped by emotional, intellectual and historical compulsions, this novel is regarded as an outstanding contribution to Indian literature in Urdu and won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990.

About the Author

Abdus Samad (b. 1952) was born in Nalanda in Bihar in a Zamindar family and did M.A., Ph D in Political Science. He is proficient in Urdu, English and Hindi and has three collections of short stories, three novels, and two translations to his credit.

He has been a recipient of several honours and awards including Bihar and U.P. Urdu Academy awards besides of course the Sahitya Akademi Award. He enjoys fruitful association with a number of literary and educational institutions like Bihar Urdu Academy, Magadh University and was the convener of Sahitya Akademi’s Urdu Advisory Board (1992-97). Widely traveled in India and abroad, he is, at present Principal, Oriental College, Patna.

Jai Ratan, the translator, was born in Ludhiana in 1917 and now lives in Gurgaon. Apart from writings of his own, he has translated extensively from Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi into English. He has over three dozen translations to his credit. He has also edited several anthologies. He is the recipient of the ‘Dwivagish’ Award (1991) and very recently the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation (English).