Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’ is a collection of twelve short stories in English translated by Deepa Bhasthi from a mix of languages common to Malnad. Her recent awarding of the International Booker Prize, 2025 is a milestone achievement in the history of Kannada literature. It was also a slap in the face of RSS that aims to alienate Muslim women from all walks of life, particularly education. Their opposition to her inaugurating the Dasara festival in Mysuru is an obvious reaction. Banu Mushtaq belongs to the rare crop of writers who broke the glass ceiling of male and upper caste dominance in the field of Kannada literature. Her writing career started in the 80’s in the socially progressive Bandaya Sahitya that brought marginalised voices into the mainstream.
Heart Lamp is a reflection on the daily lives of Muslim women whose identities are reduced to that of mothers/sisters/daughters/mothers-in-law/wives etc. under the watchful eyes of patriarchy. They exist as care-givers, machines to produce male heirs, cooks, or objects of lust. The stories sound unnervingly real, leaving the reader with a deep sense of discomfort at the deep-seated patriarchal injustice.
The final story ‘Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord!’ is a fitting ending to this anthology. The narrator appeals to the supreme being directly, lamenting on the arduous journey a woman has to make in life. She urges God to not create women like an inexperienced potter and to come down to earth as a woman. ‘Red Lungi’ highlights stark class division through the reaction of young Muslim boys to ritualistic circumcision. ‘The Arabic Teacher and Gobi Manchuri’ is about an Arabic teacher who thrashes his new bride mercilessly when she fails to cook gobi manchuri- his weirdly favourite snack. The narrator- a Muslim female lawyer (perhaps Banu herself) plans to teach her the recipe to preserve domestic peace. In ‘Black Cobras’ the silent wrath of all women rains on the local Mutawalli (Waqf manager) when he fails to ensure justice for a woman abandoned by her husband.
However, at no point do we see any of the characters actively resisting these social norms. There is a feeling of submission to this ‘eternal injustice’. That, however, is a very accurate portrayal of the reality, but it leaves readers like me craving for more light at the end.
