 Toru was the youngest child of three, after a sister Aru and a brother Abju.She and her siblings spent most of their childhoods in Calcutta, splitting 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 the Indian Christian tutor Babu Shib Chunder Bannerjea, learning French and English, and eventually Sanskrit, in addition to her first language of Bengali.