The world of Banu Mushtaq, Kannadiga life on the margins

It is indeed a high moment for Kannada and Karnataka: Kannada literature finds itself on the global literary map, thanks to the labour of two women.

- Vanamala Viswanatha

It is indeed a high moment for Kannada and Karnataka: Kannada literature finds itself on the global literary map, thanks to the labour of two women. Banu Mushtaq, a senior Kannada writer, has been awarded the 2025 International Booker Prize for Heart Lamp (Hridaya Deepa), her anthology of 12 short stories, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi. Women's writing in Kannada has not received the recognition it deserves. Even most of the notable awards at the national level, the Jnanpith for instance, have been conferred on men. In this context, the Booker is indeed a historic moment for women's writing in Kannada which can boast of great talent from Triveni and MK Indira of yesteryears to Pratibha Nandakumar, Vaidehi, and Du Saraswathi, actively writing today.

Banu Mushtaq hails from Hassan, the southwestern town in the plains of Karnataka, while Deepa lives in Madikeri, a town in the Western Ghat ranges. The ordinary lives of common people in her small town constitute Banu's fictional universe. The award, thus, signals the triumph of the small town. A practising advocate, and social activist, Banu has won several important honours, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award. Her short story Black Cobras, which depicts the plight of Hasina, an abandoned wife, was made into an award-winning film by Girish Kasaravalli, the eminent film director, in 2004. Hasina and Other Stories, another collection of her short stories, also translated by Deepa Bhasthi, had won the English PEN translation award in 2024.