Taking regional Indian literature to the global stage, Banu Mushtaq has become the first Indian author writing in Kannada to win the prestigious International Booker Prize in 2025 with her short story anthology.
Her award-winning work, Heart Lamp, is a collection of twelve short stories translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi and captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India which the judges said are “astonishing portraits of survival and resilience”.
Originally published in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, Banu Mushtaq’s portraits of family and community tensions testify to her years tirelessly championing women’s rights and protesting all forms of caste and religious oppression.
The prize was announced by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter, Chair of the 2025 judges, at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern on Tuesday. The £50,000 prize money will be divided equally between the author and the translator.
Heart Lamp’s 12 stories chronicle the lives of women and girls in patriarchal communities in southern India.
“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 the 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. I do not engage in extensive research; my heart itself is my field of study,” Mustaq, who is herself a Muslim, said.
“Heart Lamp is something genuinely new for English readers. A radical translation which ruffles language, to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation. These beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects. It speaks of women’s lives, reproductive rights, faith, caste, power and oppression,” Max Porter said.
It is the first book translated from Kannada, and with that, Deepa Bhasthi becomes the first Indian translator to win the International Booker.
Who is Banu Mustaq?
Mushtaq, a lawyer and major voice within progressive Kannada literature, is a prominent champion of women’s rights and a protester against caste and religious oppression in India.
She was inspired to write the stories by the experiences of women who came to her seeking legal help.
She becomes the second Indian author to win the International Booker Prize after Geetanjali Shree in 2022.
Mustaq began writing within the progressive protest literary circles in the 1970s and 1980s. Critical of the caste and class system, the Bandaya Sahitya movement gave rise to influential Dalit and Muslim writers, of whom Mushtaq was one of the few women.
She is the author of six short-story collections, a novel, an essay collection, and a poetry collection.
She writes in Kannada and has won major awards for her literary works, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe awards.
