Portable Homelands: Cultural Memory, Sacred Nature, and Women’s Voice in Toru Dutt

Abstract

This paper examines how Toru Dutt, a pioneering figure in nineteenth-century Indian English literature, utilizes the emblematic power of nature and the voices of mythological heroines to preserve artistic memory, assert unsexed agency, and resist social erasure. Born into a bilingual and cross-cultural terrain, Dutt composed poetry that combined Indian traditions with English erudite forms, thereby creating what may be nominated a “portable motherland” for displaced or settled individualities. By engaging deeply with works such as The Lotus, Our Casuarina Tree, and narrative retellings from Ancient Ditties and Legends of Hindustan, including Savitri, Sita, and Lakshman, this paper demonstrates how Indian symbols are elevated within Western lyrical fabrics initially viewed by social compendiums as a unseasonable middleman of Eastern themes, Dutt has ago been honored as a minstrel who subtly reshaped conceptions of Indian woman, presenting women not simply as unresistant numbers but as active moral agents, preceptors, and defenders of artistic ethics. Through close readings informed by artistic memory, ecocriticism, feminist narratology, and postcolonial perspectives, this study highlights the significance of Dutt’s erudite contributions in constructing both a womanish moral voice and an enduring artistic identity. The paper argues that Toru Dutt’s work extends beyond lyrical expression; it is an act of artistic preservation and subtle resistance that continues to reverberate in discussions of gender equivalency, artistic inclusivity, and the sustainable conservation of heritage.