Toru Dutt

Tarulatta Datta, popularly known as Toru Dutt (; 4 March 1856 – 30 August 1877) was an Indian Bengali poet and translator from British India, who wrote in English and French. She is among the founding figures of Indo-Anglian literature, alongside Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809–1831), Manmohan Ghose (1869–1924), and Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949). She is known for her volumes of poetry in English, Sita, A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields and Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (1882), and for a novel in French, Le Journal de Mademoiselle d'Arvers (1879). Her poems explore themes of loneliness, longing, patriotism and nostalgia. Dutt died at the age of 21 of tuberculosis.

Early life and education Toru Dutt was born in Calcutta on 4 March 1856 to a well-respected Bengali kayastha family. Her father, Govind Chandra Dutt was known to be of pro imperialist thoughts and worked as a Magistrate in Calcutta.

Toru was the youngest of three siblings; her sister Aru was two years older to her and she also had a brother Abjie. the family sailed for Europe as Toru's father hoped to give his daughters the best education.

Life in Europe In 1869, when Dutt was 13, Dutt's family left India, making her and her sister some of the first Bengali girls to travel by sea to Europe. At the time, women were not entitled to join the University of Cambridge and opportunities for higher education were limited. This was a chance for women to access University lectures, set up by a group that included the philosopher Henry Sidgwick and the suffragist Millicent Garrett Fawcett. Toru was especially drawn to the lectures by M. Bognel on French Literature. presumably because she was living in Cambridge and had no need for college accommodation.

Her correspondence refers, however, to Merton Hall, the early name of Newnham College, and to Miss Clough as Principal of Newnham College. While not a member of a Cambridge college, Dutt would have had access to the college's intellectual discussions and critical thinking.

At the end of 1872, Toru became friends with Mary Martin, daughter of Reverend John Martin of Sidney Sussex College.

The family left Cambridge in 1873, living in St Leonards, Sussex from April to November 1873 (where the sisters also attended some classes), before their return to Calcutta. Some well-remembered poems from the volume include "A Sea of Foliage", "The Lotus", "Sîta", and "Our Casuarina Tree." The last in particular is often taught in high schools in India as a part of the English curriculum.

In addition, Dutt wrote a great many letters. Her sister Aru died of consumption in 1872, aged twenty. and "If any friend of my grandmother happens to see me, the first question is, if I am married."

Both remarks express frustration with what she found to be a restrictive and conservative society.

Documentary A documentary film of 15 minutes' duration Reviving Toru Dutt, consisting mostly of stills of her tomb and of her letters and papers, was produced in 2009 to a screenplay by Dr Geeta Sheth, (who had previously completed a thesis on Toru Dutt), and directed by Deep Panjwani and Ravi Rajput for Foreshadow Pictures.

Family The Dutt family was one of the first Calcutta families to be strongly influenced by the presence of Christian catholic missionaries. Toru Dutt's grandfather Rasamay Dutt too, held an important position in the colonial government. Her cousin Romesh Chandra Dutt was also a writer and Indian civil servant. Dutt's father converted to Christianity in 1862, when she was six years old. Her mother initially resisted conversion, but eventually became a practising Christian as well. Both of Dutt's parents published some writing: her father wrote poetry and her mother published a translation into Bengali of a religious monograph.