Her eight-minute acceptance speech tells it all: No story is ever small, and together we build a world where every voice is heard and every person belongs.

A woman with extraordinary desire to express herself in words. But in which language? As a woman from South India’s minority Muslim population, it was her family and community that imposed upon her the Dakhini or southern Urdu – somewhat distinct from the varieties spoken in northern places like Allahabad or Lucknow. But her home state Karnataka’s native language, which she chose to write it in, is Kannada.

Not many with this profile, particularly in her generation, achieve higher education, let alone dream of writing or pursuing a professional life or even choosing their own life partners, as she did.

For a South Asian to win a Booker is no novelty. Many luminaries from the region have been awarded this prestigious literary award for the best single work of sustained fiction over the last few decades. Sir Salman Rushdie not only got the Booker for his acclaimed Midnight's Children but also won the Booker of the Booker, a special award that recognised the best of the prize's winners, and Best of the Booker, at the award’s 25th and 40th anniversaries respectively. Other South Asian Booker awardees include Arundhati Roy for herThe God of Small Things which had made a big storm with a story based in Kerala, Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss, and Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger, just to name a few.

Nor is Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp the first translation from Southasia to win the prize. Geetanjali Shree won it for her Hindi book translated to English,Tomb of Sand in 2022.

CAPTION: “Together we create a world… where every person matters” - Banu Mushtaq Booker Prize acceptance speech

So what’s so special about Banu Mushtaq? For one, hers is an exceptional tale of a spirited human journey overcoming societal taboos and defying cultural, even habitual boundaries, put up by generations of practice. It is a triumph of stories that many may imagine but usually do not get a chance to appreciate, pushed aside amid daily grinds of life, or not prioritised due to stereotypes.

To appreciate Mushtaq and her work is to celebrate the diversity of South Asian languages, culture and many minorities. Over a century ago, the iconic poet Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel for translating his own work from Bengali to English. However, seldom do we take time to explore works in other regional languages, for example, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese or Balochi. Kannada is estimated to be spoken by 65 million in a region of nearly two billion people.

Of course, there is a successful South Indian movie industry and its music that many devour. Eminent local literary figures like R.K. Narayan is widely read. But we rarely take time to hear, learn or share the riches of diversity that our region presents. As tasty cuisines from South Asia’s diverse regions whet our appetites, there are plenty of unheard stories and views to enrich our souls, and widen our understanding of each other. Stories which could help us see that deep down we are mere human societies trying to overcome mostly common challenges, regardless of what nationalistic politicians may have us believe.

Mushtaq’s achievements have put a spotlight on significant issues worthy of attention. Her stories contain vital social context, focussing on Muslim and Dalit women and children -- showcasing her lifelong dedication and commitment to marginalised voices. Through fiction, she captures the textures of life in southern India’s patriarchal Muslim society, which she also experiences first-hand as a lawyer fighting for these women. As an activist, her insights carry both emotional depth and political weight, making Heart Lamp a work of both literary and social importance.

In Deepa Bhasthi’s translation, Banu Mushtaq’s work, spanning over three decades, gains a new international audience — a significant milestone given the linguistic and cultural barriers often faced by regional writers, especially women.

This award has come at a time when the region from Bangladesh to Pakistan is embroiled in uncertainty and conflicts. Mistrust among communities and countries are high.

At a personal level, Mushtaq’s success is far more than just another Booker. Over three decades ago I lived in Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, for undergraduate studies in a Muslim neighborhood, Shivajinagar, just after the demolition of historic Babri Masjid in 1992 and the arrest of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, coinciding with the release of his blockbuster Khal Nayak. Communal tensions ran high, but as a teenager from a Muslim majority Bangladesh, I had the opportunity for casual, unguarded discussions with local Muslims, including over occasional meals at their homes. It was starkly obvious how ostracised ordinary Muslim women were in the glitzy, globalised metropolis.

Muslim girls in Banu Mushtaq’s generation seldom got the chance to finish their high schools before being married off to begin and look after families. She herself was allowed to attend a Kannada-medium missionary school on condition that she would be able to read and write in Kannada within six months. If this puzzles you, my observation from a long while ago was that Indian Muslims regardless of the regions they were from usually spoke Urdu with varying accents and proficiency as their first tongue, sometimes before the local native languages. There are post-Moghul historical and political reasons for this.

What about the situation of Muslim girls in the three decades since? Banu Mushtaq responded to this question from Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed in an English-language video interview for Frontline Magazine, after Heart Lamp was shortlisted for the Booker. She said that there are more Muslim (and other) girls with education and degrees now compared to then, but alas not so for Muslim boys who are accepting jobs, even menial jobs. This discrepancy is probably creating tensions, disharmonious relationships, issues and challenges for women which Mustaq’s work highlights.

CAPTION: Banu Mushtaq interview by Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed in Frontline Magazine, 22 April 2025.

In fact,listening to Banu Mushtaq in numerous interviews has been truly inspirational. We often hear how successful people overcome unfathomable odds to reach their goals. Mushtaq’s obstacles were manifold, They include her own postpartum depression. Her dogged pursuit of raising her voice for marginalised women brought threats and attacks on her.

Mushtaq’s over three decades-long work encompasses these experiences,portraying the injustices, unfairness and confinement that society subjects girls and women to. Her success is about resilience and defying patriarchy.

It is important to realise that Mushtaq would not have achieved her goals, specially the goal of writing, without the help and guidance of her community and wider public – majority non-Muslim. Besides her husband, she mentions a number of local literary societies and her involvement in the Bandaya Sahitya movements in the early 1970s which introduced protest writing by minority communities in the Kannada language, aiming to establish an equal society, without hierarchy -- based on caste, creed, gender or languages.

While the movement appealed to her as a youngster, Banu Mushtaq struggled not only to choose the language she would write in, but her topics. Workshops and discussions with the Bandaya Sahitya guided her, and she began writing about her own Muslim community and challenging its patriarchy.

Recognition of Banu Mushtaq's work should be heartening to all South Asians, helping to remain positive during an uncertain time. South Asian artists, sport personalities have always tried to break the arbitrary boundaries, and the general public also responded positively. Ask many Indians who contributed to Imran Khan’s cancer hospital in Pakistan for example.

Mushtaq’s determination and resilience showcases how individuals still continue to fight for greater betterment of society at large. She is a beacon of solidarity. As she said in her acceptance speech at the Booker award ceremony, “This moment feels like a thousand fireflies lighting up a single sky - brief, brilliant and utterly collective…” She accepted the honour “not as an individual but as a voice raised in chorus with so many others.”

“I am happy for the entire world which is full of diversity… this is more than a personal achievement… it is an affirmation that we as individuals and as a global community can try when we embrace diversity, celebrate our differences, and uplift one another… that in the tapestry of human experience every thread holds the weight of the whole…”

Heart Lamp

By Banu Mushtaq

Published by Penguin Random House India, 2025

Translation by Deepa Bhasthi/published by And Other Stories, UK

Pages: 192; Price: INR 279 (USD 3.26)

Winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize

(The author is a public-sector policy analyst and adviser from Bangladesh based in Australia. He writes opinion columns for Bangladeshi dailies and online platforms. By special arrangement with Sapan )