Heart Lamp & Feminist Literature | Booker Prize 2025
Heart Lamp and the Stories That Burn Quietly: A Tweak Book Club x Crossword Session on Feminist Literature, Identity & Translation
I attended a session hosted by Crossword Bookstores in collaboration with Tweak Book Club, spotlighting the International Booker Prize 2025 winner – Heart Lamp: Selected Stories by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi.
What started as a reader’s event turned into a powerful deep-dive into feminist writing, Muslim woman identity, regional language translation, and the political intricacies of womanhood, caste, and patriarchy in India.
Heart Lamp: The First Kannada Book to Win the International Booker Prize
Heart Lamp is a literary milestone, the first short story collection and the first book translated from Kannada to win the prestigious International Booker Prize.
These twelve stories, translated from Urdu-Kannada, illuminate themes of:
Childhood trauma and lost dreams
Housewife identity and postpartum silence
Sacrifices of motherhood
Women navigating marriage, family, and autonomy
The Power of Regional Language and Muslim Feminist Literature
Banu Mushtaq’s identity as a Muslim woman writer and her shift from Urdu to Kannada reveals the layered challenges of being heard. She was compelled to write in Kannada due to limited reach of Urdu, yet faced:
Cultural restrictions
Religious backlash
Patriarchal censorship from within her community
Despite this, her voice became a part of the Dalit literary movement, Kannada feminist collectives, and revolutionary literary organisations making space for unheard stories.
Why Translation Matters: Deepa Bhasthi’s Role in Heart Lamp
Deepa Bhasthi, the translator, emphasized the ethics of translation. Rather than flattening emotions, her goal was to give global readers the closest emotional experience possible.
“Ownership belongs to both,” she said. “Translation should carry the weight and intent of the original but still feel readable.”
This intention ensured that Heart Lamp became not just a translated book, but a universal experience of Indian feminist struggles.
Themes of Patriarchy, Gender Roles, and Women Against Women
The book club discussion highlighted critical themes:
Internalized patriarchy: How women often perpetuate the very systems that hurt them.
Mother vs Wife dynamic: Patriarchy thrives when women fight each other, because a united front would demand accountability from men.
The Danger of Alpha Male Glorification in Today’s Society
One key takeaway? The alpha male archetype — now glorified in films, web series, and social media — is emotionally tone-deaf and dangerously patriarchal.
“In this world at this time at this social juncture when the idea and ideals of alpha men are spreading, the exaggeration of alpha men as highly egoistic, dominated shouldn’t be propogated to young minds. Men should be sensitive to women.”
When toxic masculinity is packaged as wit or dominance, Heart Lamp asks us to rethink what we’re normalizing.
The ideal man should be sensitive, supportive, and socially responsible and not driven by ego or entitlement.
Final Reflection: A Book That Becomes a Movement
Heart Lamp is not just a literary achievement — it’s a cultural, feminist, and emotional intervention. It calls for:
Language inclusion
Empowered storytelling
Reclaiming identity through writing
Rewriting patriarchy through lived experiences
At this social and political juncture, this book serves as a reminder to hear the unheard, read the untranslated, and rethink the accepted.