From Karnataka to the World: Banu Mushtaq Makes History with International Booker Win

From Karnataka to the World: Banu Mushtaq Makes History with International Booker Win

 

  • In a groundbreaking moment for Indian and regional literature, 76-year-old Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq has won the 2025 International Booker Prize for her acclaimed short story collection Heart Lamp, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi.
  • This historic win is significant on multiple counts: Heart Lamp is the first Kannada work and the first short story collection to ever win the International Booker. The £50,000 prize is shared equally between Mushtaq and her translator, highlighting the value of literary collaboration across languages.
  • Set in South India, Heart Lamp sensitively captures the inner lives and struggles of Muslim and Dalit women, weaving themes of caste, gender, marginalization, and resilience into bold, evocative storytelling. Mushtaq’s literary voice, long celebrated in Kannada circles, now receives long-overdue global recognition.
  • She becomes only the second Indian writer to win the International Booker, after Geetanjali Shree’s 2022 win for Tomb of Sand (Hindi), translated by Daisy Rockwell.
  • The International Booker Prize celebrates works translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, unlike the Booker Prize, which honors original English-language fiction.

Indian authors who have won the Booker Prize include:

Salman Rushdie – Midnight’s Children (1981)

Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things (1997)

Kiran Desai – The Inheritance of Loss (2006)

Aravind Adiga – The White Tiger (2008)

Banu Mushtaq’s win is more than a personal victory—it is a landmark moment for Kannada literature, giving regional voices a seat at the world stage and reaffirming the power of stories rooted in local realities yet resonating universally.

A Brief History of the Booker Prize: Key Milestones

The Booker Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, established in 1969 to honor the best original novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. Over the decades, it has evolved into a global symbol of literary excellence.

Key Milestones in Booker Prize History:

1969: Inaugural Prize awarded to P.H. Newby for Something to Answer For.

1971: Eligibility limited to authors from the Commonwealth, Ireland, and Zimbabwe, reinforcing the prize’s focus on post-colonial literature.

1981: Salman Rushdie wins for Midnight’s Children. The novel is later awarded the “Booker of Bookers” in 1993 and “Best of the Booker” in 2008, cementing its legendary status.

1992: Prize is shared for the first time between Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) and Barry Unsworth (Sacred Hunger), leading to rule changes discouraging future ties.

2002: Prize is rebranded from Booker Prize for Fiction to The Man Booker Prize, after new sponsorship by the Man Group.

2005: Launch of the International Booker Prize, awarded biennially (and later annually from 2016), recognizing a body of work by a living author and their translator.

2014: Rules change to allow all English-language authors worldwide, including Americans, sparking debate over its British identity.

2019: Second-ever tie declared, awarded to both Margaret Atwood (The Testaments) and Bernardine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other). Evaristo became the first Black woman to win the prize.

2022: Geetanjali Shree becomes the first Indian author to win the International Booker Prize for Tomb of Sand.

The winner of the Booker Prize 2025 will be announced on 10 November, with the winner receiving £50,000, as well as the £2,500 awarded to each of the six shortlisted authors

Today, both the Booker and International Booker prizes are celebrated for their role in championing powerful voices, diverse cultures, and bold narratives in global literature.