Panna Lal Patel

Pannalal Patel (1912–1989) wrote over twenty short story collections and several novels in Gujarati and received the Jnanpith Award in 1985, the highest literary honour in India. His novel Malela Jiv, written in twenty-four days at the age of twenty-eight and first serialised in the daily Phulchhab, tells the story of Kanji and Jivi, two lovers born into different castes whose union is thwarted by social divisions. The Sahitya Akademi edition, published under the English title 'Kanji and Jivi: A Tragic Love Story,' brings this foundational Gujarati novel to English readers.