Toru Dutt Read online

  Toru Dutt

  by

  Dr. Sheeba Azhar

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  About The Book

  About The Author

  Dedicated To

  Preface

  Foreword

  01. Milieu And Formative Influence

  02. Her Works – Themes

  03. Myths And Legends

  04. Isolation And Alienation

  05. Life And Death

  06. Poetic Technique

  07. Her Place

  Bibliography

  Copyright

  Published by:

  Indra Publishing House

  E-5/21, Arera Colony,

  Habibganj Police Station Road,

  Bhopal 462016

  Phone: +91 755 4059620, 6462025

  Telefax : +91 755 4030921

  Email : [email protected]

  [email protected]

  Web. : www.indrapublishing.com

  Title : Toru Dutt

  Author : Dr. Sheeba Azhar

  Copyright © 2011 Dr. Sheeba Azhar

  All Right Reserved

  First Print 2011

  ISBN : 978-93-80834-42-9

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any from or by any means without the prior written permission of the author. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  Information contained in this work is obtained by the publishers from sources believed to be reliable. The publisher and its authors make no representation or warranties with respect to accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and shall not be liable for any errors, omission or damages arising out of use of this information. Dispute if any related to this publication is subject to Bhopal Jurisdiction.

  About The Book

  The Greek Menander said that they whom the Gods love die young, and many have been the inheritors of unfulfilled renown. Perhaps none of them was so unique as Toru Dutt. Frail and delicate since birth, brought up by a doting father, who lavished every care and attention on her, born in a Hindu family but converted early to Christianity, fed on Hindu myths and legends acquired both through books and through oral tradition, educated in Europe and longing to return to England, attracted towards the end of her life by Sanskrit and devoting weary hours to its grammatical intricacies, writing in French and English but not in her mother tongue, publishing works in both these languages, leaving behind with those who knew her the fragrant memory of an exceedingly charming personality, dying before she was twenty two, Toru Dutt is one of the most poignant examples of those who before their proper time pass through the door of darknes.

  About The Author

  Dr. Sheeba Azhar, born in 1979 at Nainital had her childhood at Bareilly, studied in Lucknow, Rewa and Gwalior and received a gold medal. Worked at various government colleges in Madhya pradesh and now works with her husband as an Assistant Professor in University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudia Arabia. She is an expert of Indian writing in English and a powerful, eloquent writer. Her articles and research papers on a wide variety of subjects have been published. She is a holder of title "Muallime Millat" conferred by Madarsa Board Govt. of M.P.

  Dedicated To

  my husband Dr. Syed Abid Ali

  and

  my loving son Atif & daughter Haadiya.

  Preface

  The subject of the present study is an Indian girl who, dying at the age of twenty-one, has left behind her a legacy in verse and prose which, quite apart from its true and delicate poetic quality, constitutes an amazing feat of precocious literary craftsmanship. Toru Dutt, ‘the fragile exotic blossom of song’ is undoubtedly the first authentic Indo-Anglian poet. A Hindu convert Christian, she put the emphasis back on India. Her poetic sensibility accomplishes the miraculous synthesis of the two apparently independent aspects of Indian poetic psyche on the one hand and the English for creative writing on the other. Toru Dutt’s ideal was to interpret the East to the West and she succeeded in her mission. She wrote:

  I long to pour immortal lays

  Great paeans of perennial truth.

  Indian English literature has grown from a sapling to a strong rooted tree in full bloom. Indians, however, did not start writing in English in a day. It took several historical events and distinguished personalities to bring Indian writing in English to its present eminence. Toru Dutt is one of such prodigies. Many universities in India and abroad have included Toru Dutt for class room studies in their syllabi, therefore a fresh approach to her poetic art is required not only in India but in other countries too. The various aspects of Toru Dutt’s poetry have been studied earlier. The purpose of present study is to make a detailed analysis of the themes and technique of her poetry separately, in order to bring out her scholarship as well as her poetic craft.

  The subjects that Toru chose for writing poetry were not only relevant to her time, but their importance cannot be denied in the present as well. Her ballads and legends are significant not merely as cultural and philosophical anthropology, but also as a political or religious, or moral instrument. This study seeks to ensure her place among Indian English poets because in matters of chronology and quality she is at the head of Indo-Anglian poets. Concisely, this study is made to furnish the original contribution of the poetry of Toru Dutt to ensure her place in the galaxy of Indo- English poets, so that the coming generation would always remember her as an extraordinarily gifted poet, whose whole life was dedicated to the cause of literature.

  It is unfortunate that today she is merely regarded as a translator and remembered only for her Savitri or some small poems. This study attempts to prove that she is not only a translator but a transcreater also. In her translations Toru achieves the height of emotions and communicates not only an original poet’s sensibility but also her own.

  It is strange that even today, her name is not much familiar among literary masses and critics give fewer acknowledgements to her work. It is my humble effort to bring out properly the themes and technique of this extraordinarily gifted poet, who by all norms of justice deserves a better treatment than that meted out to her so far.

  I feel, no further justification is needed for this attempt to do honour to an Indian maiden, in truth an ‘inheritor of unfulfilled renown’, in view not only of what was lost to the world by her early death, but also of the comparative oblivion into which her name has sunk.

  In the end, I want to thank Mr. B. Maria Kumar for taking out his valuable time and writing a foreword for this book

  (Sheeba Azhar)

  Foreword

  It is a great privilege for me to introduce the book ‘Toru Dutt’ written by Ms Sheeba Azhar which is an out of the ordinary account of Toru Dutt, the first Indo- Anglican poet.

  Author has given a biographical account of Toru’s life and psychic springs of her spiritual and creative energies. This book is an essential read especially for a proper understanding and evaluation of her poetic achievements. What makes this book unique is that, the author has in great detail showcased the themes and techniques of Toru’s poetry in a much simpler type. I congratulate the author for bringing out the scholarship as well as the poetic craft of Toru Dutt in a true manner.

  As described, Toru Dutt was a prodigy and Ms. Sheeba Azhar has in clear terms, done a proper justice to this genius. The reading is so interesting that it will surely appeal to both categories - the experts as well as new researchers on Toru Dutt.

  The author has done this work in a lucid style. The narrative begins with an introduction of Toru Dutt, her childhood in Kolkata, her background and soon effortlessly d
wells on her work and her themes. Later on, follow the myths and legends associated with Toru. As the reader proceeds ahead, he comes to know, how the free and fresh atmosphere of England helped the poet develop her intellectual and imaginative powers. In the latter part of the book, author describes Toru Dutt’s isolation and alienation due to her conversion of faith from Hinduism to Christianity and the impact this isolation had on her poetry.

  The most significant aspect of writing of this book is its flow. The story of the poet has been woven in such an attention-grabbing way that author Ms. Sheeba Azhar has given a vivid account of poet’s work and as the book progresses, the reader not only gets a grip of the story but just wants to read more and more.

  Lastly, I compliment Ms. Sheeba Azhar for doing such an extraordinary piece of work on Toru Dutt and convey my best wishes to her for the success of this book.

  B. Maria Kumar

  Additional Director General

  of Police

  Police Headquarters,

  Bhopal

  01. Milieu And Formative Influence

  Matthew Arnold writes in his Study of Poetry: “For successful creation both the power of man and the power of moment must concur, and the man is not enough without the moment.”1 Power of man equal to will power, inner potential and inner strength. The power of moment refers to three things at a time; the mental state of the author, the situational and contextual reality and his immediate environment. In order to fully appreciate the work of an artist, it may be pertinent to suggest the organic relationship of the person, the moment and the milieu.

  Every writer is the product of his or her time and the society he or she inherits from her birth. No writer is able to distance himself in a work of art so completely as to eliminate all traces of his own private dreams, ideals and anxieties. To quote Mario Praz, “If the merging of a work of art into the general history of culture results in losing sight of the individual artist, it is impossible… to think of the latter without recurring to the former.” 2

  In his Golden Codgers: biographical Speculations, Richard Ellmann argues convincingly in favour of tapping “the subsurface life” of the writer concerned in order to understand the creative complexity of a work of art. In the preface of this book he observes: Ultimately what the biographer seeks to elicit is less the events of a writer’s life, than the ‘mysterious armature’ which binds the creative work. But writer’s lives have their mysterious armature as well. Affection for one leads to interest in the other, the two sentiments tend to join, and the result of affection and interest often illuminate both the fiery clay and the wrought jar.3 The uncovering, therefore, of the biographical hinterland of Toru’s life and psychic springs of her spiritual and imaginative energies is essential for a proper understanding and evaluation of her poetic achievements.

  Among the poets whom the gods have loved there are, surely, few more remarkable than Toru Dutt. Writing in a foreign language, seeking her models in a foreign literature, interpreting a foreign religion, she built up in three years an eternity of fame. Her name, at least, is no longer unfamiliar in the ear of any wellread man or woman.4 This is however the present situation. In tracing the various influences which help to form people’s characters in this world, it is sometimes necessary to go far back in order to estimate the value of the forces acting on future generations.

  When Toru Dutt started her literary career, India was under British rule. In the early nineteenth century, there set in a movement in this country towards a new life and a new thought that is generally characterized as the Renaissance in India. This renaissance, this new birth in India became, in due course of time, a thing of immense importance to herself and to the world, —to herself because of all that is meant for her in the recovery or the change of her time old spirit and national ideals, to the world because of the immense possibilities involved in the reasserting of a force that is in many respects unlike any other and its genius very different from the mentality and spirit that have hitherto governed the modern idea in manhood.

  The term ‘Renaissance’ carries the mind back to the turning point of European culture to which it was first applied; that was not so much re-awakening as an overturn and reversal. That is decidedly not a type of renaissance that is all possible in India. There is closer resemblance to the Celtic movement in Ireland, the attempt of a reawakened national spirit to find a new impulse of self expression which shall give the spiritual force for a great reshaping and rebuilding and in India something of the same kind of movement appeared and took a pronounced turn.

  In his book The Renaissance in India (1918) Cousins puts the question, whether the word ‘renaissance’ at all applies in the Indian context since India has always been awake and stood in no need of re-awakening. There was beyond doubt, a period, brief but full of complacency and superficial advance and inner stagnation and decay. The spirit’s light receded, the intellect dissipated itself in grandiose nothing, and the will to live suffered a strong attenuation. And the series of disasters on the political and economic fronts only hastened the process and completed the national catastrophe.5 It was that moment and the pressure of a superimposed European culture which followed it and made the reawakening inevitable.

  Sri Aurobindo, while considering the question of the renaissance in India takes three factors into account; the great past of Indian culture and life with the moment of in adaptive torpor into which it had lapsed, the first period of the western contact in which it seemed for a moment likely to perish by slow decomposition and ascending movement which first broke into some clarity of expression.6 Another prominent critic J. H. Cousins put emphasis on Indian spirituality which has always maintained itself even in the decline of the national vitality, and which has saved India always at every critical moment of her destiny. It was certainly her spirituality, which has been the starting point of her renaissance. In other words the spirit, the intellect, and the life impulse, all-functioning at the highest pitch and yet working in the closet collaboration.7Any other nation under the same pressure would have long ago perished soul and body. But India kept her essential spirit through a great change over took the body. The shaping of a new body, of new philosophical, artistic, literary, cultural, political, social forms by the same soul rejuvenscent was the type Indian renaissance.8

  By the beginning of the 19th century Britain-or the East India Company –was more or less master of the situation in India. But what a situation:

  Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves,

  Waited for rain, while the black clouds,

  Gathered for distant, over Himvant

  The jungle crouched, humped in silence. 9

  Indian renaissance created a feeling of nationalism and spiritual forces started to assert it. It sharply reacted against the imperialistic [powers, especially the British rule. The Britishers were brave people, and had come to India in the sixteenth century mainly for commercial expansion. Taking advantage of the then shaky Mughal rule the Britishers subjugated India and changed the tools of trade for the implements of war. Gradually they had established their reign over a vast sub-continent consisting Aryans, Dravidians, Semites and others.

  At last, in 1813, the commercial monopoly of the Company was ended, and the British in India assumed, besides political functions, educative and civilizing functions as well. Thereafter, the Governors of the Provinces and successive Governor–General showed little interest in Hindu or Islamic culture, and hence they did not tackle boldly the problem of illiteracy among the Indian masses. There were at that time, four types of educational institutions in India:

  Pathshalas of Hindus

  Madarssas of the Muslims

  Persian Schools and,

  Schools teaching through the modern Indian languages 10

  It was Sir William Jones, who brought a new phase of expansion in India in the field of education. Sir Jones founded The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. He had respect for the sacred literature of India He prompted not only his countrymen but als
o Indian people ‘to study the sacred Indian literature reverently, to bring it to the notice of the masses and to help the Indian renaissance towards fruitful blossoming in the fullness of time.11Lord Warren Hastings indeed founded and liberally endowed the Calcutta Madarssa in 1781. Earlier James Augustus Hicky had founded “Hickey’s Bengal Gazette” India’s first newspaper, at Calcutta.

  Jones and his comrades in oriental scholarship were definitely inspired by a stern, missionary zeal. But the burning question before them was how to communicate the message of the renaissance to the illiterate masses. In the meantime, Jonathan Duncan started the Sanskrit College in Banaras, still no appropriate conclusion was drawn out over the issue of medium; neither Charles Grant’s Observations nor Lord Moira’s Minute, nor the British Parliament’s initiative in 1813, nor yet the formation of the committee of Public Instruction in 1823, attempted any farreaching solution of the educational problem.

  The three factors that emerged now and acted as a solvent of the doubts and perplexities in the course of education in India for the next one hundred years and more, were as follows:

  The new intellectualism and renascent ardour among the Indians, as symbolized by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

  The perseverance of the Christian missionaries,

  The perseverance and metallic clarity of McCauley’s English prose style.12

  Among the leading Bengali gentlemen in Calcutta at that time were Raja Ram Mohan Roy, founder of Brahmo Samaj, one of the earliest fruits of the new educational movement and; Dwarkanath Tagore and his cousin, Prosunno Kumar Tagore; Ram Komal Sen; Ram Gopal Ghose; and Rasmoy Dutt. The last mentioned was the most distinguished of the three sons of Nilmoni Dutt, greatgrandfather of Toru Dutt. With the help of two Englishmen David Hare and Sir Edward Hyde East, Ram Mohan Roy inaugurated the Calcutta Hindu College, which later developed into the Presidency College; the premier educational institution of Bengal, later on Madras and Bombay followed the enterprising and energetic Bengal.