Who Is Banu Mushtaq, Award Winning Author At Centre Of Mysuru Dasara Row

Booker Prize-winning author Banu Mushtaq has been invited to inaugurate this year's Dussehra celebrations in Mysuru. The invitation has led to criticism from BJP leader Pratap Simha, who questioned why a Muslim writer was chosen for a Hindu religious event.

"The Dasara celebration is not a secular event, it's a religious celebration, we don't have any objections to personal beliefs of Banu Mushtaq, but Dasara is 100 per cent a reflection of our religion, it's our festival," Mr Simha told reporters.

The 77-year-old activist confirmed to NDTV that she would attend and inaugurate the festival.

Who Is Banu Mushtaq?

1. Banu Mushtaq was born in 1948 and raised in Hassan, Karnataka. She was eight when she joined a Kannada-medium convent school, mastering the language that would later become central to her literary work. She began writing in school and pursued higher education despite societal pressures for early marriage.
2. At 26, she got married, and her first short story was published when she was 27. Early married life brought emotional struggles, including postpartum depression; at one point, she attempted self-immolation but was saved by her husband. Her experiences of struggle are reflected in her acclaimed short story collection Heart Lamp, for which she won the International Booker Prize in May. She has also received major honours, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Dana Chintamani Attimabbe Award.
3. Ms Mushtaq worked as a journalist at Lankesh Patrike, using reporting to expose social injustices, before studying law and supporting her family while continuing to write.
4. She was active in the Bandaya movement, advocating social reform through literature, and faced threats for publicly supporting women's rights, including Muslim women's access to mosques.
5. She has authored six short story collections, a novel, essays, and poetry, primarily in Kannada; Heart Lamp is her first English translation, with versions in Urdu, Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has also defended the invitation.

"Banu Mushtaq's literary work 'Hrudaya Deepa' won the Booker Prize. It is a matter of pride and joy for us that a woman writer from Karnataka received this honour. Banu Mushtaq was associated with farmers' organisations, Kannada agitations, and progressive movements. It is significant that a woman has been invited to inaugurate Dasara," he said.