Couple of gus please (Pakistan)
September 21 2004 at 7:35 AM Tony bennett


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I've received this via e-mail from a Christian evangelist working in Paksitan - a somewhat dangerous occupation! Since his e-mails may be monitored, we stick to non-controversial things like measurements, and here's what he says:

"The measurements here are very mixed. All fruit & veg are sold by the kilo except for those sold by counting them. Distances are measured in km, but there are remnants of the previous system. Cloth is sold by gus (yard). Furniture is measured in inches. But generally measuring things is not a very Pakistani thing to do".


First of all, notice how he applied the word "remnant" to the use of old units. The places where the previous system may appear are no doubt old signs and references from 60 years and more ago. A country like Pakistan is too poor to just replace the old with the new. They just let the old rot out and when it is replaced, it is done in metric.

As for the GUS, can't find a reference to it anywhere, not even on Rowlett. I'd bet if it exists, it is equated to the metre and not the yard as the old Dutch ell is. Since it is common in the English media to change metres to yards without actually converting the numbers, I'm not surprised if the evangelist would say the gus is the same as the yard and not the metre. You may want to inquire if the cloth is measured with a metre stick or a yard stick.

http://www.mbendi.co.za/land/as/pk/p0000.htm#20

The following was sent to me after I inquired about the Gus.


The Gaz-sauda of Harun -al-Rashid = 24 + 2/3 fingers of an Abyssinaian slave, and is the same traditional measure used on the nileometer for several previous millenia as best I understand it. It equates to about 18.5 imperial inches or 47 cm.

Akbar standardised the guz in india at exactly 40 fingers at the start of his Ilahi period = 30.75 inches or 78 cm.

By the British period when Princep examined the matter it varied from about 29.2 to 35.8 inches or 74 cm to 91 cm in different parts of India

All this from Princeps 'Essays' vol II p 123-5

Rob (York, UK)

PS the post Moghul variation likely arose in connection with land measure on which tax was based - where measuring with a wet rope could cut your tax bill..........




It appears the Gus or Guz varies as much as imperial, so you have no idea what it really is or what you are really getting. Since the metric system is the standard now in Pakistan and the use of metre sticks is prevalent, the old name gus is more then likely now equal to the metre. Maybe it hasn't happened yet in the UK, but everywhere else, the old names have been recycled to mean rounded metric amounts. Refer to livre and pfund being the same as 500 g, something you imperialists abhor.