Banu Mushtaq, author of ‘Heart Lamp’ left, and Deepa Bhasthi pose for photographers upon arrival for the International Booker Prize, in London, on May 20, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Writer and activist Banu Mushtaq‘s short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’, translated by Deepa Bhasti, became the first Kannada title to win the coveted GBP 50,000 International Booker Prize in London on May 20, 2025.

The book has 12 stories originally published in Kannada between 1990 and 2023. The stories reflect her background as a journalist and advocate, with a sharp focus on women’s rights and resistance to caste and religious injustice.

While the Booker buzz has catapulted Banu into global spotlight, her own story began in a small village in the hilly Malnad region of Karnataka.

Who is Banu Mushtaq?

Banu Mushtaq was born on April 3, 1954, in Hassan. Apart from being a writer, she has been an activist, journalist, lawyer and politician.

She is married to Mohiyuddin Mushtaq, a businessman from Hassan. She began writing in the 1970s, and her first story appeared in a periodical called Prajamatha in 1974.

Soon, she started working as a reporter at Lankesh Patrike, a tabloid edited by poet and writer P. Lankesh (father of slain activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh). 

Mushtaq was associated with Kannada literature’s Bandaya movement in the 1980s. The movement, a clarion call for social and economic justice, was marked by a tradition of protest, while offering space for marginalised voices including Muslims and Dalits. In 1983, she was elected to Hassan City Municipal Council as a member. She served for two terms.

In 1990, Mushtaq left journalism and began practising as an advocate to support her family.

A prolific writer, Banu has written over 60 stories in her six-decade-long writing career. Her stories have been published across six collections, and navigate themes of faith, gender, and resistance while shifting between Kannada, Urdu, Arabic, and Dakhni.

Her works include Hejje Moodida Haadi (1990), Benki Male (1999), Edeya Hanate (2004), Safeera (2006), Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu (2015) and Hennu Haddina Swayamvara (2022). Her story Black Cobra, included in Heart Lamp, was adapted into the award-winning film Hasina by Girish Kasaravalli.

Her stories have been translated into Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi and Urdu besides English. She won the Karnataka State Sahitya Academy award in 1999.  Earlier, an English translation of a collection of her short stories, Haseena and Other Stories, won the English PEN translation award for the year 2024. That was also translated by Deepa Bhasthi.

Despite facing criticism from her community elders and severe backlash, including an attempt on her life by a knife-wielding attacker, Banu has continued to use her words to write about Muslim families with women characters who fight for their rights and assert themselves.