Banu Mushtaq: Why is India’s International Booker Prize winner at the centre of a political row?

International Booker Prize winning-author Banu Mushtaq has found herself in the midst of a controversy after she was invited to inaugurate a prominent festival in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Last week, the state’s Congress government announced that Mushtaq – who won the Prize earlier this year for her short story anthology, Heart Lamp – would inaugurate the Mysuru Dasara festivities in Mysuru (formerly called Mysore).

Mysuru Dasara, also called Naada Habba (which roughly translates to festival of the land in Kannada), is an annual 10-day event that has been celebrated for decades.

Thousands of people flock to the city to participate in the grand festivities, which include cultural performances, elephant parades, exhibitions and fireworks.

The decision to invite Mushtaq sparked criticism from some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders – which is in the opposition in the state – who said that Mushtaq, a Karnataka-born Muslim, should not be inaugurating a Hindu festival.

Dussehra is a Hindu festival which celebrates the victory of good over evil, but Mysuru Dasara is conducted by the Karnataka state government and people of all faiths join in the celebrations.

Mushtaq has said that she was honoured to be invited to the festival and that she felt deeply connected to it, having participated in the festivities herself as a child.

But despite her expressing respect for the festival, the controversy has refused to die down.

Some BJP leaders have also taken offence to some of Banu’s previous comments related to the Hindu goddess Bhuvaneshwari, who is considered to represent Kannada language and identity.

Mushtaq made history earlier this year when she became the first author writing in the Kannada language to win an International Booker.

Her award winning-book, Heart Lamp, which was translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, was praised by judges for showcasing characters that were “astonishing portraits of survival and resilience”.

Mushtaq’s stories, including in Heart Lamp, focus on the challenges women, especially Muslim women, face due to religious conservatism and a deeply patriarchal society.

Interestingly, she isn’t the first Muslim person to be invited to inaugurate the Mysuru Dasara festival. In 2017, KS Nisar Ahmed, a Kannada poet and author, had been given the honour.

But the invitation to Mushtaq has come under scrutiny from the BJP.

BJP MP Yaduveer Wadiyar acknowledged Mushtaq’s influence on Kannada writing, saying that her Booker win brought “great pride” to the Kannada literary fraternity.

However, he added that the Mysuru Dasara festival wasn’t a cultural event but a Hindu religious festival and demanded that Mushtaq “clarify her reverence” towards the two Hindu dieties associated with the festival before agreeing to inaugurate it.

BJP leader Pratap Simha said that while it was okay for Mushtaq to chair literary festivals, it wasn’t acceptable for her to be the chief guest at an event like Mysuru Dasara. He also questioned if Mushtaq had faith in the festival’s goddesses and if she followed Hindu traditions.

Amid the criticism, a video of a speech delivered by Mushtaq last January began circulating online.

In her speech, she questioned the practice of associating a Hindu deity (Bhuvaneshwari) with Kannada language and identity, pointing out that it was exclusionary to her and other Muslims in the state.

Mushtaq isn’t the first author to view this blurring of identities through a critical lens. Many progressive writers from the state have criticised what they call a “Hinduisation” of the Kannada language and identity.

Supporters of the invitation to Mushtaq say that the row is not just about her religious identity, but that it is a larger battle between keeping one of the state’s biggest festivals open and welcoming to all faiths and turning it into a majoritarian event.

“Mysuru Dasara is a secular festival and inviting Banu to inaugurate it is one of the best things that can happen to Karnataka. Turning this into an issue about religion or Hindutva [Hindu nationalist agenda] is detestable,” says Mamta Sagar, a Kannada poet.

Meanwhile, Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has defended his government’s decision to invite Mushtaq, highlighting the festival’s inclusive character.

Mushtaq too hasn’t bowed down to pressure to decline the invite.

“Active politicians should have a sense of what to politicise and what not to,” she told The Hindu newspaper.