Writing Rebellion

“Come to think of it, for us, that is, for us Muslims, it is said that, other than Allah above, our pati is God on earth.

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Suppose there comes a situation where the husband's body is full of sores... It is said that even if the wife uses her tongue to lick these wounds clean, she will still not be able to completely repay the debt she owes him. If he is a drunkard or a womaniser, or if he harasses her for dowry every day— even if all these ‘ifs’ are true, he is still the husband. No matter which religion one belongs to, it is accepted that the wife is the husband's most obedient servant, his bonded labourer.” —Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq (translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi)

Banu Mushtaq has always been a ‘critical insider’, rejecting religious conservatism, shattering stereotypes. Her works trace the trajectory of lives lived on the margins and offer readers an insider’s perspective on Muslim women’s struggles and aspirations in Southern India. A native of Hassan, Karnatka, Mushtaq has been ostracised by many in her own community for her ‘outspokenness’. Unfazed, the 76-year-old keeps writing the stories she feels need to be told. Kannada is the language she thinks, writes and dreams in. Though her mother tongue is Dakhni Urdu, she struggled when she was admitted to an Urdu-medium school as a child. When her father, a government employee, was transferred to Shimogga, he enrolled her in a Kannada-medium convent school next to his office. That acceptance was conditional, too. She could stay on only if she learnt to read and write Kannada in six months. Mushtaq was a natural; it only took her days to pick up both skills.

With her short story collection Heart Lamp being longlisted for the International Booker Prize this year, Mushtaq has become the first Kannada writer to be nominated for the prestigious prize. The 2022 winner, Geetanjali Shree’s Ret Samadhi (originally written in Hindi; translated into English by Daisy Rockwell), is the first book in an Indian language to be awarded the International Booker Prize.