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Time of India
15 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
Literary workshop fosters personal growth and rehabilitation behind bars
Pic: IGP (Eastern Range) BR Ravikanthe Gowda addresses the opening ceremony of a three-day literary workshop at Haveri sub-jail Thursday Haveri: LN Mukundaraj, president of Karnataka Sahitya Academy, emphasised the significant role of Kannada literature in shaping individuals' character, highlighting the contributions of numerous Kannada writers. Speaking at the opening ceremony of a three-day literary workshop at Haveri sub-jail on Thursday, he discussed the works of notable authors such as Pampa, Kumaravyasa, Kanakadasa, Kuvempu, and Bendre, who incorporated human values in their writings. He highlighted Pampa's message of human unity. He acknowledged the contributions of Haveri's saint poets, including Santa Shishuvinahal Sharif, Sarvajna, and Kanakadasa, to Kannada literature. "Despite Kanakadasa's opposition to caste discrimination five centuries ago, society continues to struggle with divisions based on caste, religion, gender, property, and authority," Mukundaraj said. Inspector-general of police (Eastern Range) BR Ravikanthe Gowda described the workshop as unique in its approach to making literature accessible. He discussed how imprisonment leads to social exclusion for lawbreakers, noting the relationship between crime and criminal conduct. He suggested reading as a solution. "Literature's capacity to promote positive behaviour and discourage antisocial tendencies, recommending regular reading habits," the senior IPS officer said. The event was attended by SP Anshu Kumar, additional superintendent of police LY Shirakol, Haveri University vice-chancellor Suresh Jangamashetti, Karnataka Folklore University registrar CT Guruprasad, and jail assistant superintendent Khilari. Ganesh Aminagad coordinated the workshop, while Mallikarjun Manpade, academy member and coordinator, managed the proceedings. Literature's role in rehabilitation IGP BR Ravikanthe Gowda urged participants to utilise the three-day period effectively for personal growth rather than viewing it as a mere obligation. He recommended literature as an effective means for controlling anger and fostering personal development.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Discussion on Banu Mushtaq's works today
Karnataka Sahitya Academy will organise an appreciation session and discussion on the works of Booker Prize winners Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasti in Belagavi on Wednesday. President, Karnataka Sahitya Academy, L.N. Mukundaraj will inaugurate the event. Member of the academy Maitreyini Gadigepagouda and resource person Hombayya Honnalagere will speak. President, Karnataka Lekhakiyara Sangha district unit, K.R. Siddagangamma, registrar of the academy N Kariyappa and Kannada Sahitya Bhavan trustee R.B. Katti will be present. The event will be organised jointly by the academy, Chakora Sahitya Vedike, Karnataka Sahitya Vichar Vedike, Karnataka Lekhakiyara Sangha and Kannada Sahitya Bhavan Trust, said a release.
The Hindu
31-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Karnataka Sahitya Academy invites entries for 2024 awards
The Karnataka Sahitya Academy has invited entries for its annual book awards for 2024. Books published for the first time between January and December 2024 are eligible. Submissions are invited in various categories, including poetry, novel, short story, play, humour, travelogue, autobiography, literary criticism, science writing, children's literature, debut works, and Kannada-to-English translations. Four copies of each book must be submitted to the Registrar, Karnataka Sahitya Academy by July 15. For more details, visit or call 080-22211730/22106460.
Hindustan Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
The world of Banu Mushtaq, Kannadiga life in the margins
It is indeed a high moment for Kannada and Karnataka: Kannada literature finds itself on the global literary map, thanks to the labour of two women. Banu Mushtaq, a senior Kannada writer, has been awarded the 2025 International Booker Prize for Heart Lamp (Hridaya Deepa), her anthology of 12 short stories, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi. Women's writing in Kannada has not received the recognition it deserves. Even most of the notable awards at the national level, the Jnanpith for instance, have been conferred on men. In this context, the Booker is indeed a historic moment for women's writing in Kannada which can boast of great talent from Triveni and MK Indira of yesteryears to Pratibha Nandakumar, Vaidehi, and Du Saraswathi, actively writing today. And there is more, where it comes from. Much more! Banu Mushtaq hails from Hassan, the south-western town in the plains of Karnataka, while Deepa lives in Madikeri, a town in the Western Ghat ranges. The ordinary lives of common people in her small town constitute Banu's fictional universe. The award, thus, signals the triumph of the small town. A practising advocate, and social activist, Banu is the author of six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection and a poetry collection. Several important honours, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe award have come seeking her. Her short story Black Cobras, which depicts the plight of Hasina, an abandoned wife, was made into an award-winning film by Girish Kasaravalli, the eminent film director, in 2004. Hasina and Other Stories, another collection of her short stories, also translated by Deepa Bhasthi, had won the English PEN translation award in 2024. Banu began her career during the Bandaya or the protest movement of the heady 1970s and '80s. The movement culminated in the awakening of a new social consciousness, which led to the effervescence of new writing in Kannada. The unheard voices of marginalised groups were heard for the first time, heralding a non-Brahmin era in Kannada literary culture. Sara Aboobacker, Fakir Mohammad Katpadi, Boluvar Kunhi, and Banu Mushtaq started chronicling the stories of their community for the first time. Standing on the firm ground of lived experience and observed life, Banu deployed writing as a powerful tool of social dissent. To put it in her own words: 'My stories are about women — how religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates. The daily incidents reported in the media and the personal experiences I have endured have been my inspiration. The pain, suffering, and helpless lives of these women create a deep emotional response within me. I do not engage in extensive research; my heart itself is my field of study.' The first story in Heart Lamp, Stone Slab for Shaista Mahal to the last one in the collection, Be A Woman Once, Oh Lord! bear testimony to the fact that her writing is a searing indictment of our social system. Banu's commitment to progressive politics can be traced back to the Bandaya movement, which proclaimed, 'May poetry be a sword, a soulmate who feels for the pain of the people.' It couldn't have been easy for Banu as a Muslim speaking Dakhani Urdu, and as a woman writer writing in Kannada, to critique the patriarchal practices of an already beleaguered community. Banu candidly describes her predicament as a Muslim woman writer writing in a second language for a majoritarian reading community. She writes in the preface to her first collection (1990), 'I gradually became aware that even when I am writing in Kannada, I can only write about the Muslim world, its people, their joys and sorrows, their interests and angularities. Almost immediately, I also realised that the Muslim community will surely resist such revealing narratives. Even as I was coming to terms with this resistance from inside the community, I could equally clearly see how the larger community outside was as resistant to any critique coming from me.' It is remarkable that Banu has successfully negotiated this tightrope walk by simultaneously being a critical insider in the Muslim community, and a friendly outsider in the larger, not-so-friendly majority community. Her stories help us connect with the Muslim community in a small town like Hassan, which is invariably othered, reminding us of our common humanity. Deepa Bhashti's curation of stories showcases Banu's writing at its best. Deepa's translation has ably captured the rhythms and movements of Banu's lifeworld to lend a powerful voice to her various characters in English. Her interesting afterword provides a detailed account of the rationale behind her translation practice which has retained several Kannada and Urdu words while eschewing footnotes and italics altogether. Today, as new literates from the village, the small town, the city, and the metropolis have greater access to knowledge and technology, tremendous difference and diversity marks Kannada writing, bringing in lives and experiences that had not entered the hallowed space of the 'literary'. The Booker for Banu's stories has the potential to open the door to the diverse lifeworlds of the Kannada people through translation. Translations have always built bridges across communities. Which communities do the English translations of our regional literatures connect? Surely, Deepa's translation has brought home the Muslim world of Hassan to an international readership. Max Porter, chair of the International Booker Prize 2025, said: 'Heart Lamp is something genuinely new for English readers. A radical translation which ruffles language, to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation.' But, as important, or perhaps more, is the bridge that it can build across the many linguistic worlds within India through our common, if alien, inheritance of English. Kannada literature can, as if by a sleight of hand, become Indian literature through English translations. There is yet another, perhaps the most important constituency that can be served through English translations. Increasingly, the educated class, which is the likely consumer of books, is growing monolingual in its orientation. While this class is comfortable using the local language or English for functional purposes, it largely reads in just one language: either Kannada or English, in the case of Karnataka. That the sales figures for English translations of regional texts are the highest in that very region bears out this claim. The English translations of regional literary texts can connect the more educated populace with the people around them. We are well-served by such translation activism. Most of the English translators of Kannada literature today are engaged in developing a pared down style and forging an informal and intimate English to express the varied voices, rhythms and styles of the emergent Kannada sensibilities of a new generation in a new age, helping the 'bullock carts to reach the global stage'! (Banu's words). International recognition — be it the 2018 DSC award for Tejaswini Niranjana's translations of Jayant Kaikini's stories or now the Booker for Deepa in 2025 — is bound to encourage translators and publishers to boldly experiment with 'a plurality of Englishes', explore new and creative ways of translating to bring alive novel life-worlds unknown to the mainstream culture, making for greater empathy for the worlds in the margins. Translation can, thus, be a potent bridge which can connect our polarised worlds. Vanamala Viswanatha is currently visiting professor, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. She has translated the works of major Kannada writers including U R Ananthamurthy, P Lankesh, Poornachandra Tejaswi, Vaidehi, and Sara Aboobakkar into English. Her latest work is a translation of Kuvempu's celebrated novel, Malegalalli Madumagalu (Bride in the Hills). The views expressed are personal
Hans India
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hans India
Kannada writer Mushtaq makes history with Booker win
Author of six short-story collections, a novel, an essay collection and a poetry collection, Mushtaq writes in Kannada and has won major awards for her literary works, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe awards Bengaluru/London: Kannada writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq has made history by becoming the first author writing in the Kannada language to win the International Booker prize with her short story anthology, Heart Lamp. It is the first short story collection to win the presigious prize. Judges praised her characters as "astonishing portraits of survival and resilience". Featuring 12 short stories written by Mushtaq between 1990 and 2023, Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India. The stories were selected and translated into English from Kannada, which is spoken in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, by Deepa Bhasthi who will share the £50,000 prize. In her acceptance speech, Mushtaq thanked readers for letting her words wander into their hearts. "This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small; that in the tapestry of human experience, every thread holds the weight of the whole," she said. "In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other's minds, if only for a few pages," she added. Bhasthi, who became the first Indian translator to win an International Booker, said that she hoped that the win would encourage more translations from and into Kannada and other South Asian languages.
