Breaking Barriers: Kannada Writer Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’ Makes History Winning International Booker Prize

In a groundbreaking literary achievement, 77-year-old Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp” has become the first-ever short story collection to win the prestigious International Booker Prize. The collection of 12 stories, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, chronicles the daily struggles of Muslim women in Karnataka and South India as they navigate religious strictures, patriarchal systems, and societal expectations.

A Historic Win

The International Booker Prize, established in 2005, was originally awarded to authors for their entire body of work, with noted short-story writer Alice Munro among its early recipients. Since 2016, however, the prize has been given to a single book translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland during the previous 12 months. “Heart Lamp” marks the first time a short story collection has claimed this distinguished honor since the format change, according to The New York Times.

The £50,000 prize (approximately $66,700) will be split equally between Mushtaq and her translator, Bhasthi, underscoring the collaborative nature of translated literature and the vital role translators play in bringing international voices to English-speaking audiences.

Stories of Struggle and Resistance

Mushtaq’s collection presents unflinching portraits of women confronting various forms of oppression. In the eponymous story, a mother of three contemplates suicide after her husband takes a second wife. In “Black Cobras,” a woman begs a religious leader to make her husband pay for their child’s medical bills, only to be ignored. “Red Lungi” explores themes of faith and inhumanity, while “The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri” offers a more lighthearted take on marriage expectations.

What sets these stories apart is not just their unflinching look at oppression but also their portrayal of women’s resistance. As The Week magazine notes, Mushtaq’s women “aren’t silent but dissent, rage, and rebel in ways big and small.” In “Black Cobras,” women unite in collective rage against a religious authority figure who failed to help a desperate mother.

Unlike most translations that aim to be “invisible” so readers wouldn’t know the book wasn’t originally written in English, Bhasthi’s work takes the opposite approach.

Max Porter, chair of the Booker Prize judges, emphasized that these stories are “far from simple depictions of oppressed Muslim women.” Instead, they contain “bravery, wit and satire” and “challenge Western stereotypes of Muslim life in the most beautiful and exciting way.”

Translation as Art

The judges particularly praised Bhasthi’s translation approach. Unlike most translations that aim to be “invisible” so readers wouldn’t know the book wasn’t originally written in English, Bhasthi’s work takes the opposite approach. Porter noted that “Heart Lamp” is filled with Indian expressions and ways of talking that give the stories “an extraordinary vibrancy.”

Bhasthi deliberately retained the essence of the original text, transliterating certain words and not italicizing Kannada, Urdu, or Arabic words that remain untranslated in English. This stylistic choice preserves the cultural specificity of the stories while making them accessible to an international audience.

A Voice Decades in the Making

Despite having written for decades, “Heart Lamp” represents the first time Mushtaq’s work has been translated into English. The stories in this collection were originally published in Kannada between 1990 and 2023.

Mushtaq’s literary roots lie in the Bandaya Sahitya movement of the 1970s and 80s, which emerged as a protest against the hegemony of upper-caste and predominantly male-led writing. The movement encouraged women, Dalits, and other social and religious minorities to tell stories from their own lived experiences, using the Kannada they spoke in their daily lives.

As a lawyer, journalist, and activist, Mushtaq draws inspiration from both news reports and women she’s met through her work. “My heart itself is my field of study,” she told the Booker Prize website. “The more intensely the incidence affects me, the more deeply and emotionally I write.”

Recognition Against the Odds

Prior to winning the International Booker Prize, “Heart Lamp” had received relatively little media attention in Britain or the United States. The New York Times reported that only one major daily British newspaper had given the collection a dedicated review, with Lucy Popescu in The Financial Times writing that Mushtaq’s “deceptively simple tales decry the subjugation of women while celebrating their resilience.”

This win follows a growing recognition of Indian literature in translation on the international stage. In 2022, Geetanjali Shree’s “Tomb of Sand,” translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell, won the International Booker Prize, while in 2023, Perumal Murugan’s “Pyre,” translated from Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, was longlisted.

While Mushtaq’s stories are firmly rooted in the experiences of Muslim women in Karnataka and South India, reviewers have noted their universal appeal. The Hindu newspaper observed that “they are also universal; the stories and characters could be found anywhere in India or the world.”

Shubhangi Shah, writing for The Week, highlighted this “delicate balance between the individual culture and universality in experiences” as what makes each of Mushtaq’s stories “a deeply engrossing read.”

Upon winning the prize, Mushtaq said it “feels like a thousand fireflies lighting up a single sky — brief, brilliant and utterly collective.” She described her book as “my love letter to the idea that no story is ‘local'” and to the notion that a story “born under a banyan tree in my village can cast shadows as far as this stage tonight.”

As “Heart Lamp” takes its place in literary history, it illuminates not just the struggles of the women it portrays but also the power of translated literature to bridge cultural divides and speak to universal human experiences.

Sources: The New York Times, The Hindu, The Week magazine