RADICALIZED FAITH AND GENDER INEQUALITIES: EXPLORING INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION IN ISLAM THROUGH THE LENS OF HEART LAMP BY BANU MUSHTAQ.

The critical inquiry of various religions across the paradigms is evident that the radicalization of religion is a pervasive phenomenon. However, Islam has been the most victimized religious teachings by manipulating religious doctrine to justify patriarchal authority,and radicalized to transform them as tools of control.Heart Lamp,a collection of twelve short stories originally written in Kannada in the late 20th century by Banu Mushtaq and translated into English in 2024 by Deepa Bhashthi, received the International Booker Prize in 2025. It serves as a profound case study to explore the life experiences of Muslim women in southern India. The text exposes the intersection of religion, gender, power, and resistance. Foregrounding the societal and religious oppression embedded within certain interpretations of Islamic teachings. The present study employs Foucault's concept of biopower,which roots the regulation of bodies and lives of people in institutional structure,to investigate how religious authorities govern the lives of women,by altering religious doctrines in the pretext of moral order in Islamic traditions.Further,the study navigates through gynocritical thought to highlight women's narratives and experiences to redefine the text as an act of resistance against Gender inequality and reclamation of agency by Muslim women. By doing so, the study critiques the institutional corruption that fosters the misinterpretation of its teachings,by advocating a reconstructive thought that centres the voices of Muslim women and calls for more inclusive interpretation of religious texts and traditions that honor the foundational values of Islam while challenging its patriarchal distortions.