“Heart Lamp” Shines Globally: Banu Mushtaq Becomes First Kannada Author to Win Booker, Shashi Tharoor Applauds

Banu proves quite loudly in the international arena that you need to be honest about your work, no shortcuts to win hearts. Her short story collection Heart Lamp, thus, does not raise slogans, making resistance quiet and deeply personal, taking autonomy through small, steady steps.

As she received the first International Booker Prize for the Kannada literature, Shashi Tharoor appreciated Banu with warmth. Clearly, Tharoor’s writer personality speaks this time apart from his political duties to put forth India’s stance in front of the international arena against terrorism.  

What Does Tharoor Say to Banu on Winning the Booker Prize?

Tharoor shares the picture of Banu holding the Booker Prize, smiling with grace in a crisp but significant post on his X handle. He definitely takes it as another win for Indians in the global literature field as he says, “another triumph for Indian writing”.  

Congratulations to Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq on winning the International Booker Prize for her short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’ - https://t.co/9IfaGqqSYx Another triumph for Indian writing, a celebration of diversity & of the writer’s belief that “no story is ever too small”

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 21, 2025

He also does not fail to address the beauty of India and its diversity in providing equal rights to all casts and creeds. Tharoor takes it as “a celebration of diversity”, subtly hinting that no act of terrorism can break our unity. 

Talking about Banu, Tharoor appreciates her belief that “no story is ever too small.” Her “Hear Lamp” surely is a great achievement for Kannada literature, as it gave the industry its first-ever Booker Prize. 

The judges, while declaring Banu the winner amidst five other worldwide competitors, praise her short story collection as “witty, vivid, colloquial, moving, and excoriating.” They praise the way she captured outward community tensions, mixing with family dynamics and the characters' own psyches.

Indian Authors Who Won the Booker Prize  

Banu’s reaction was poised, noting that literature is the lost sacred space that lets us live inside each other’s minds when the world tries to divide us. While she brought the first Prize for her respective language, other Indian authors have already attained that glory, including;

• Salman Rushdie for Midnight’s Children in 1981
• Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things in 1997
• Kiran Desai for The Inheritance of Loss in 2006
• Aravind Adiga for The White Tiger in 2008

This win is significant and came after so many years of waiting. The celebration should be louder, inspiring other fresh Indian writers to dream of the big.

What genre of literature do you prefer to read? Let us know your best-read stories in the comments!