Banu Mushtaq bags International Booker Prize for ‘Heart Lamp’. Who is she?

New Delhi: Indian writer Banu Mushtaq has bagged the International Booker Prize for her short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’. By winning the prize, she becomes the first author of Kannada-language literature to be conferred the esteemed literary award for translated fiction.

While accepting the award at a ceremony at the Tate Modern gallery in London, Mushtaq said: “This moment feels like a thousand fire flies lighting a single sky — brief, brilliant and utterly collective. I accept this great honour not as an individual but as a voice raised in chorus with so many others.”

Committed to women’s rights and social justice

Banu Mushtaq is a 77-year-old writer, activist, and lawyer. She writes in the Kannada language. Her works have also been published in Urdu, Tamil, Hindi, and Malayalam, besides her recent publication in English.

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Mushtaq was born in Karnataka and she enrolled in a Kannada-language missionary school in Shivamogga with the condition that she learn to read and write Kannada within six months; however, she started writing just a few days after beginning school.

Mushtaq also worked as a reporter for ‘Lankesh Patrike’, a newspaper. She was also associated with All India Radio in Bengaluru for a very short time. In the early 2000s, she became actively involved with the civil society group Komu Souhardha Vedike. Mushtaq and her family faced a three-month “social boycott” after she voiced her support for Muslim women’s right to enter mosques.

As a lawyer, Mushtaq has been committed to women’s rights and social justice. And these have shaped her storytelling. Her works talk about caste and class inequalities and disparities in the society. ‘Heart Lamp’ is a collection of 12 stories which were originally published between 1990 and 2023. The stories revolve around everyday life in Muslim communities of southern India, with a strong focus on the experiences of women and girls.

Mushtaq has authored six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection, and a volume of poetry. A prominent voice in Dalit and Muslim literature, she earlier won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe Award.