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Toru Dutt
Tarulatta Datta, popularly known as Toru Dutt (Bengali: তরু দত্ত; 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 (1876) 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.
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. Her mother, Kshetramoni Dutt (née Mitter), belonged to the Rambagan Dutt family.
Toru was the youngest of three siblings; her sister Aru was two years older to her and she also had a brother Abjie. She and her siblings spent most of their childhood in Calcutta, dividing their time between a house in the city and a garden house in the suburb of Baugmaree. Dutt was educated at home by her father and by an Indian Christian tutor, Babu Shib Chunder Banerjee. She learnt French, English, and eventually Sanskrit, in addition to her first language, Bengali. During this time, she developed a love for English literature, growing to understand and appreciate works such as John Milton's epic, Paradise Lost. She also learned stories of ancient India from her mother.
A few years after her brother Abjie died at the age of fourteen, the family sailed for Europe as Toru's father hoped to give his daughters the best education.
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. The family spent four years living in Europe, one in France and three in England. They also visited Italy and Germany.
They first lived in Nice, France for a few months where they stayed at a pension, studying French.
In 1870, the family lived in Onslow Square, Brompton, London, where Dutt studied music. In 1871, they moved to Cambridge, where they remained until 1873.
In 1872, the University of Cambridge offered a lecture series, "Higher Lectures for Women", which Toru Dutt attended with her sister Aru. 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.
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Toru Dutt
Tarulatta Datta, popularly known as Toru Dutt (Bengali: তরু দত্ত; 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 (1876) 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.
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. Her mother, Kshetramoni Dutt (née Mitter), belonged to the Rambagan Dutt family.
Toru was the youngest of three siblings; her sister Aru was two years older to her and she also had a brother Abjie. She and her siblings spent most of their childhood in Calcutta, dividing their time between a house in the city and a garden house in the suburb of Baugmaree. Dutt was educated at home by her father and by an Indian Christian tutor, Babu Shib Chunder Banerjee. She learnt French, English, and eventually Sanskrit, in addition to her first language, Bengali. During this time, she developed a love for English literature, growing to understand and appreciate works such as John Milton's epic, Paradise Lost. She also learned stories of ancient India from her mother.
A few years after her brother Abjie died at the age of fourteen, the family sailed for Europe as Toru's father hoped to give his daughters the best education.
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. The family spent four years living in Europe, one in France and three in England. They also visited Italy and Germany.
They first lived in Nice, France for a few months where they stayed at a pension, studying French.
In 1870, the family lived in Onslow Square, Brompton, London, where Dutt studied music. In 1871, they moved to Cambridge, where they remained until 1873.
In 1872, the University of Cambridge offered a lecture series, "Higher Lectures for Women", which Toru Dutt attended with her sister Aru. 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.