Banu Mushtaq Makes History: Kannada’s ‘Heart Lamp’ Wins 2025 International Booker Prize

For the first time in Kannada literary history, 77-year-old lawyer, social worker, and pioneering writer Banu Mushtaq from Karnataka has won the 2025 International Booker Prize for her gripping collection of short stories Heart Lamp. Translated into English from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, it is the first collection of short stories and the first Kannada novel in history to have won the coveted prize.

Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp is a set of 12 richly personal and politically provocative short stories, each revealing the lives of common Muslim women in South India. Written over three decades between 1990-2023, the stories bear witness to underground rebellions, internal agonies, and voiceless resistance of women enduring patriarchal burdens, religious conservatism, and socio-political exclusion.

“No Story Is Ever Small”

Gracing the occasion with her presence at London’s Tate Modern, Mushtaq, dresses in a red sari, delivered a passionate acceptance speech:

“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.”

She added, “In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds, if only for a few pages.”

A Voice from the Margins

Mushtaq’s own journey to literary glory is as engaging as her own writing. She was born in 1948 in Hassan, Karnataka, and studied the Quran in Urdu until her father enrolled her in a convent school, where she first encountered the Kannada language that would serve as the medium of her social criticism and revolt.

As a member of the Bandaya Sahitya movement—a post-Emergency wave of protest literature—Mushtaq infused her writing with the raw urgency of grassroots activism. A practising lawyer since 1990 and a former reporter for the now-defunct Lankesh Patrike, she has long spoken truth to power, even surviving a violent attack in 2002 for defending Muslim women’s right to enter mosques.

Her son, Taher, recounted: “She never minced her words. The truth is the truth—and she always said and did what is right.”

A Radical Translation

The Booker judges praised Heart Lamp for its literary courage. Chair Max Porter described it as a “radical translation” that expands our understanding of the form.

“These beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects.”

Deepa Bhasthi, a co-recipient of the prize along with her translator’s award, is the first Indian translator to win the International Booker. Her method of working was intuitive but rigorous:

“With Banu’s stories, I read all her fiction before selecting the ones in Heart Lamp. I had a free hand, and Banu trusted my chaotic method.”

Bhasthi has previously translated Kota Shivarama Karanth and Kodagina Gouramma’s books and won the English Translate PEN Award in 2024 for Heart Lamp.

From Hassan to the World

Mushtaq’s stories are not just fiction; they are reflections of her lived experience and the world around her. Her inspiration struck during a depressive episode in 1981, when her husband brought home newspapers and books. One of them—Lankesh Patrike—changed her life. From there, she plunged into Dalit movements, Kisan rallies, and feminist collectives, shaping a literary career defined by empathy and rebellion.

“I do not engage in extensive research,” she once said. “My heart itself is my field of study.”

Heart Lamp has ignited more than a literary milestone—it has become a beacon for women’s voices, regional languages, and untold truths. 

As the world celebrates Banu Mushtaq’s triumph, it also confronts a vital question: Whose stories have we been ignoring, and what does it cost us to continue doing so?