India's Banu Mushtaq makes history at the International Booker Prize: Who is she?

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21-05-2025

Banu Mushtaq, a trailblazing writer, lawyer and activist from Karnataka, has become the first Kannada author to win the prestigious International Booker Prize for her short story collection 'Heart Lamp'. Translated by Deepa Bhasthi, this landmark achievement marks a new chapter for Indian regional literature on the global stage. Here's what we know about Banu Mushtaq read more
Banu Mushtaq (left) and Deepa Bhasthi, author and translator (respectively) of Heart Lamp, at the International Booker Prize 2025 ceremony in London, UK. Image/Booker Prize Foundation
Banu Mushtaq has become the first Indian author writing in Kannada to win the prestigious International Booker Prize, marking a watershed moment for regional Indian literature on the global stage.
Her award-winning work, Heart Lamp, is a collection of twelve short stories translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi.
The book (original name in Kannada: Hridaya Deepa), which traces decades of Mushtaq's literary output from 1990 to 2023, was recognised for its compelling portrayals of familial and societal conflict in Karnataka.
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The announcement was made at a ceremony held at Tate Modern in London on Tuesday night (May 20, 2025), where both Mushtaq and Bhasthi were present to receive the award.
The International Booker Prize, valued at GBP 50,000 (approximately ₹57,50,000), is equally shared between the author and translator. This makes Heart Lamp not only the first Kannada title to win the award but also the first short story collection to achieve the honour.
Mushtaq expressed her gratitude by stating, 'This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small, that in the tapestry of human experience every thread holds the weight of the whole.'
Reflecting on the unifying power of literature, she added, 'In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the lost sacred spaces where we can live inside each other's minds, if only for a few pages.'
Who is Banu Mushtaq
Born in the 1940s in Shivamogga, a small town in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Banu Mushtaq grew up in a conservative Muslim household where girls typically studied the Quran in Urdu.
However, her father, a government employee, sought broader educational opportunities for her. At the age of eight, he enrolled her in a convent school where the medium of instruction was Kannada.
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Despite initial resistance from the school authorities, who feared she might not adapt, Mushtaq mastered the language within days, shared The Hindu in a March report. Kannada later became the language of her literary expression.
Mushtaq's journey as a writer began in her school years, and she pursued higher education even as societal expectations pushed her peers toward early marriage. She married at 26, but her early years of matrimony were marked by hardship, including postpartum depression and domestic restrictions.
In an interview with Vogue, Mushtaq shared, 'I had always wanted to write but had nothing to write (about) because suddenly, after a love marriage, I was told to wear a burqa and dedicate myself to domestic work. I became a mother suffering from postpartum depression at 29.'
Her situation reached a breaking point when she attempted to set herself on fire, a shocking moment averted by her husband. As she recounted in an interview with The Week, 'Once, in a fit of despair, I poured white petrol on myself, intending to set myself on fire. Thankfully, he sensed it in time, hugged me, and took away the matchbox. He pleaded with me, placing our baby at my feet saying, 'Don't abandon us.''
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These deeply personal experiences shaped her stories. Her female characters reflect the quiet courage and resistance she embodied in her own life.
The Indian Express highlighted this aspect, noting in a review, 'In mainstream Indian literature, Muslim women are often flattened into metaphors — silent sufferers or tropes in someone else's moral argument. Mushtaq refuses both. Her characters endure, negotiate, and occasionally push back — not in ways that claim headlines, but in ways that matter to their lives.'
How Mushtaq has challenged societal inequalities
Mushtaq was a prominent voice in the Bandaya Sahitya (Protest Literature) movement of the 1970s and 1980s, which challenged caste and gender hierarchies in Kannada literature.
As one of the few female Muslim writers associated with the movement, she used her platform to highlight systemic inequalities and the lived realities of marginalised communities.
Her literary portfolio spans six collections of short stories, a novel, an essay collection, and a volume of poetry. She also worked as a reporter for a local tabloid and later took up law to support her family.
Her writings, published over four decades, have been translated into Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam. In 2024, another translated volume, Haseena and Other Stories, won the PEN Translation Prize.
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Mushtaq has received numerous accolades for her work, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe Award. Yet, her forthright views have made her a target.
Mushtaq has also received threatening phone calls in 2000 after she publicly voiced her support for women's right to pray in mosques.
Following her remarks, a fatwa — an Islamic legal ruling — was issued against her, and she narrowly escaped an attempted knife attack by a man who was stopped just in time by her husband.
'One man, a known troublemaker, tried to stab me to gain notoriety. I could have punished him ― he was charged under Section 307 (attempt to murder). But my daughter Lubna, who was practising law with me, asked me to forgive him because he kept begging for mercy, saying he had small children. I saw his plight and decided to let him go. Once, he waited outside my office asking for money to buy sweets for his children. My husband laughed, and I gave him 0600, telling him never to show his face again,' she revealed in another interview with The Week.
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'I have consistently challenged chauvinistic religious interpretations. These issues are central to my writing even now. Society has changed a lot, but the core issues remain the same,' she told The Week.
Deepa Bhasthi, the translator of Heart Lamp
Deepa Bhasthi, who brought Heart Lamp to English-speaking audiences, is a writer and literary translator based in Kodagu, Karnataka.
Her published translations include a novel by Kota Shivarama Karanth and stories by Kodagina Gouramma. Bhasthi curated the twelve stories in Heart Lamp from Mushtaq's body of work, covering more than three decades.
She described her method as 'translating with an accent,' aiming to retain the cultural texture of the original while making the stories accessible to a global audience.
In her acceptance speech, Bhasthi said, 'What a beautiful win this is for my beautiful language.' She is the first Indian translator to win the International Booker Prize.
We're delighted to announce that the winner of the #InternationalBooker2025 is Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi.
Here's everything you need to know about the book: https://t.co/wPRGqgrQyc pic.twitter.com/tVFxwSGhZo — The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) May 20, 2025
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'For me, translation is an instinctive practice in many ways, and I have found that each book demands a completely different process. With Banu's stories, I first read all the fiction she had published before I narrowed it down to the ones that are in Heart Lamp. I was lucky to have a free hand in choosing what stories I wanted to work with, and Banu did not interfere with the organised chaotic way I went about it,' Bhasthi said in an interview with The Booker Prize Foundation.
Bhasthi's work on Heart Lamp also received English PEN's PEN Translates award. Her nuanced approach and deep engagement with Mushtaq's text were central to the book's international recognition.
About Heart Lamp
Published in April 2025 by And Other Stories, a Sheffield-based independent press, Heart Lamp stood out among 154 entries submitted by publishers.
The prize jury, chaired by novelist Max Porter, selected six books for the final shortlist. Porter praised Mushtaq and Bhasthi's collaboration as 'a radical translation which ruffles language, to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes.'
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The book was described by the judges as 'witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating,' offering deeply personal and universally resonant portraits of community and resilience.
Author and translator (respectively) of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq (left) and Deepa Bhasthi at the Southbank Centre International Booker Prize 2025 shortlist readings. Image/Booker Prize Foundation
Other shortlisted works included Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume I, Vincent Delecroix's Small Boat, Hiromi Kawakami's Under the Eye of the Big Bird, Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection, and Anne Serre's A Leopard-Skin Hat.
Mushtaq is only the second Indian author to win the International Booker Prize after Geetanjali Shree, whose Hindi novel Tomb of Sand, translated by Daisy Rockwell, won in 2022.
'My stories are about women – how religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates. The daily incidents reported in media and the personal experiences I have endured have been my inspiration. The pain, suffering, and helpless lives of these women create a deep emotional response within me, compelling me to write,' Mushtaq said in an interview with The Booker Prize Foundation.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also lauded Mushtaq's achievement writing in a post on X (formerly Twitter), 'Banu Mushtaq, who embodies and writes with the true values of this land, which is harmony, secularism, and brotherhood, has raised the flag of Kannada's greatness on the international stage and brought honour to all of us.'
Heartfelt congratulations to Kannada's pride, author Banu Mushtaq, who has been awarded the International Booker Prize. This is a moment of celebration for Kannada, Kannadigas, and Karnataka.
Banu Mushtaq, who embodies and writes with the true values of this land, which is… pic.twitter.com/yKhxUNZ2ax — Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) May 21, 2025
Banu Mushtaq's International Booker Prize win is more than a personal triumph; it is a landmark for Kannada literature and a broader recognition of voices that have long remained on the periphery.
With inputs from agencies