Toru Dutt
Toru Dutt was an Indian poetess born on March 4, 1856, in Calcutta, India. She belonged to a cultured family that converted to Christianity in 1862, and her father prioritized Western education for his daughters, leading them to France in 1869. Throughout her education, Dutt became proficient in French and English, attending schools in Nice, London, and Cambridge. She published her first volume of poetry, *A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields*, in 1876, which included translations of French poems alongside her original works. Despite personal tragedies, including the deaths of her close friends and sister, Dutt continued to contribute to literary magazines and began to create poetry rooted in her native culture, studying Sanskrit for this purpose. Tragically, she succumbed to consumption at the young age of 21 on August 30, 1877. Although she remained largely unknown during her lifetime, Dutt is now recognized as a pioneer of the Indian women's English literary tradition and a significant figure illustrating the complexities of colonial influence on literature. Her work has since gained posthumous acclaim in both Europe and India.
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Toru Dutt
Writer
- Born: March 4, 1856
- Birthplace: Rambagan, Calcutta, India
- Died: August 30, 1877
Biography
Toru Dutt was born in Rambagan, Calcutta, India, on March 4, 1856. She was the daughter of Govin (or Govind) Chunder Dutt, a magistrate of Calcutta and a gentleman of unusual culture and erudition, and his wife Kshetramoni. The family became a Christian in 1862. Dutt was the youngest child of three. Abju, brother to Toru and Aru, died in 1865. Wanting his daughters to have a Western education, Govin Chunder Dutt moved his family to France in 1869. Here the sisters learned both French and English while attending the French School at Nice. They continued their education in London in 1870, and then moved on to Cambridge, where they attended the Higher Lectures for Women. While they were in London in 1870, The Dutt Family Album was published. The family spent time in Italy before returning home in 1873.
They came back to their city house in Rambagan and their garden residence at Baugmaree in September of 1873. In 1876 Toru Dutt produced her first volume of poetry, A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields. In this volume appear one hundred sixty-five English translations of French poems. Dutt completed all but the eight translations; her sister finished the others. The collection was favorably received in both England and France. In addition to her work as translator of others’ work, Dutt contributed poems and essays of her own authorship to local magazines, especially to the Bengal Magazine.
Toru Dutt lost both her best friend and her sister when Aru Dutt died of consumption on July 23, 1874. In 1875 and 1876 she studied Sanskrit so that she might make a “sheaf” of poems for her native culture. She herself was ill while at work on her Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. Like her sister, Dutt ultimately succumbed to consumption. She died on August 30, 1877, and is buried at C. M. S. Cemetery in Calcutta. Her father saw to it that her manuscripts—two novels, one in English and one in French, as well as her new sheaf of poems—were published in London and Paris.
Toru Dutt was virtually unknown during her lifetime, but her work gave her a certain amount of posthumous celebrity in Europe. Called “a young Bengali native Christian lady” and a poet “who died in girlhood,” it has been said that in her “some of the leading literary men of England found a poet of no mean powers” and that she “wrote French and English verses full of haunting sweetness.” She is also said to have been “a nationalist and a passionate republican.” Credit is now given her for having pioneered the Indian women’s English literary tradition in the mid- nineteenth century. She is also said to illustrate the influence that colonialism had on many writers, since as her love for her Bengali home is expressed in English when English was not even her second language. Her works have been included in such collections as World’s Great Classics: Hindu Literature (1900).