State’s Scholar Rekindles Legacy Of Toru Dutt, India’s Francophone Frontrunner
‘Reviving Toru Dutt’ — a 15-minute documentary film conceived and produced by Dr Gita Bhatt, opens each session of the on-going weeklong Francophony celebrations hosted by Alliance Française d’Ahmedabad. Bhatt is a scholar on the Bengali writer who is symbol of the first Indo-French literary connections.
Bhatt, who began research on Toru Dutt’s works at Bhavnagar University in 1984, and has done an in-depth study on her contribution towards integration of literature of French, English, Sanskrit languages, says, “I was drawn to study and revive Dutt’s works as I learnt her works from the initial link between French, English and Sanskrit literature before Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore explored it. The most striking feature about Dutt is that she was not aiming at publication or fame. She was a patient of incurable TB and wrote simply to rise above that pain.”
Two collections of poems, one novel and a personal diary — a limited edition of works that Dutt left behind when she died at the ripe age of 21 in 1877 got published in Paris in 1878. Her works are available at National Library of Paris and manuscripts of her diary are kept at London National Library. “Her unique contribution to form the first Indo-French link was forgotten in India. And, as I learnt more and research and read her work, I gathered that it was her work that inspired the writings of Aurobindo and Tagore — two most celebrated writers of the following era — in a major way.”
“I researched on Dutt’s works for 20 years and recently produced a documentary to revive her works,” says Bhatt, who met with a fatal accident in 1995 which had made her completely bedridden for a decade. Even today she suffers from limited mobility. “I withstood 12 major corrective surgeries and 50,000 injections while I got treated at Pune and Paris. And works of Dutt have been my constant companions which inspired me to go ahead and work tirelessly. I was amid terrible pain, and Dutt’s work taught me to rise above pain,” says Bhatt.
Bhatt completed her research on Dutt in 2003 and produced a documentary in 2009. “From 1,000 entries from across the country, this documentary was selected among best thirty entries at Ahmedabad International Film Festival in 2009.”
Today, Dutt’s works are again in focus courtesy Bhatt’s mammoth task of re-discovery and preservation. Chintan Pandya, cultural co-ordinator at AF says, “To respect Dutt as a symbol of first Indo-French literary connection and respect the hard work and discovery of Bhatt, her documentary has been selected to mark the beginnings of each day of the Lumière d’Afrique — African Film Festival at Gujarati Sahitya Parishad.”
