‘Heart Lamp’ Creates History as First Kannada Title to Win International Booker Prize

In a first for Indian literature, the International Booker Prize jury awarded the prestigious £50,000 prize to Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp. This makes it the first Kannada novel to receive the honour. The organisers announced the prize on Tuesday evening at London’s Tate Modern. This win represents a tremendous acknowledgment of regional Indian storytelling at the international level.

Mushtaq, who is a renowned author, activist, and lawyer, collected the award in person with her translator Deepa Bhasthi.

Honoring Women’s Voices Through Literature

Heart Lamp comprises 12 short stories that span over three decades. It presents a moving and compelling account of women’s lives in patriarchal communities throughout southern India. Produced between 1990 and 2023, the stories are based on rich oral story traditions, developing themes of resilience, resistance, humor, and solidarity. The collection was among six global finalists for its complex portrayals of community tensions and family life.

Judges characterized the tone of the book as “witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating,” emphasizing its emotional richness and cultural particularity. Max Porter, head of the 2025 International Booker Prize judging panel, praised the collection as “a radical translation” that redefined language. He added that it provided “new textures in a plurality of Englishes.”

Translation That Preserves Cultural Authenticity

The translation of Heart Lamp played a crucial role in its international acclaim. Deepa Bhasthi, who curated and translated the stories, maintained the multilingual essence of southern India by preserving Urdu and Arabic expressions within the dialogues. This decision allowed the stories to retain their cultural authenticity while resonating with global readers.

“What a beautiful win this is for my beautiful language,” Bhasthi said, echoing pride at Kannada literature finding its place on a global platform. Porter said, “It challenges and pushes us to understand translation in new ways. This was the book the judges really loved, right from our first reading.”

A Voice for the Silenced

Fiammetta Rocco, International Booker Prize Administrator, highlighted the relevance of Heart Lamp to contemporary literary and socio-political environments. “Stories written by a great advocate of women’s rights over three decades and translated with sympathy and ingenuity, should be read by men and women all over the world,” she claimed. “The book speaks to our times, and to the ways in which many are silenced.”

Mushtaq seconded these sentiments in her acceptance speech, “This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small, that in the tapestry of human experience every thread holds the weight of the whole. In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds, if only for a few pages.”

Pride in Kannada and Indian Literature

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah praised Mushtaq and welcomed the international acclaim for Kannada literature. “She has flown the flag of greatness of Kannada at the international level,” he said.

Heart Lamp becomes the first Kannada book to win the International Booker Prize. It also marks the first short story collection ever to receive the honor. It follows the 2022 International Booker award to Geetanjali Shree and translator Daisy Rockwell for Tomb of Sand, written in Hindi. InIn 2023, the International Booker Prize jury longlisted Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s Pyre for the award.