BY CSM STAFF WRITER
Introduction:
The following is the speech delivered by Dr. Kaustav Bhattacharya to open the literary event, India and germany: A Literary Conversation at The Four Seasons Hotel, Bengaluru, on Friday, 18th September 2026.
Good evening! Guten Abend! Suswagatham! Herzlich Willkommen! Ladies and gentlemen! Meine Damen und Herren!
A very warm welcome to you all to this very special literary evening celebrating the historical Indo-German literary and cultural encounter. The programme is titled ‘INDIA AND GERMANY: A LITERARY CONVERSATION’.
At the very outset, I wish to state that my presentation is the most esoteric and abstract—a total flight of fancy away from reality—unlike those of my distinguished co-panellists, who have very substantial, high-brow and tangible themes to discuss. Well, I am celebrating the author Hermann Hesse, who was an icon and inspiration for the 1960s Hippie generation and the Flower Power movement. Timothy Leary termed Hesse the ‘Prophet of the Psychedelic Generation’. LSD, rock-n-roll and the entire self-indulgent excesses of the hippies are associated with this psychedelic generation.
Hesse mentions in his own words: ‘All attempts at turning me into a useful man ended in failure, or rather dishonour and scandal, and in my running away or my expulsion.’ This self-perception struck a deep chord in me, and his self-understanding resonated with my own life. My kinda chappie!
My focus this evening will be on Hermann Hesse, the Nobel Laureate German author, and his magnum opus work of fiction: Siddhartha, which is completely Indian or India-centric, with its setting in India and all the characters being Indian. The novel Siddhartha is a historical one, set in the 6th century BC in Kapilavastu, located in current-day Nepal, at the time when Lord Gautama Buddha was alive and active. The novel was published in 1922. Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
There is an eponymous film adaptation of the novel, released in 1972, directed by Conrad Rooks and starring Shashi Kapoor in the role of the protagonist Siddhartha, along with Simi Garewal and Romesh Kapoor.
A few words about Hermann Hesse:
Hermann—the novelist, poet and painter—was born in 1877 in Calw, Germany, and was raised in Calw and Basel, Switzerland. He attended school in Göppingen. Hesse entered the Maulbronn Seminary in 1891, from where he discontinued his studies within a year of joining. Hermann was completely disillusioned, with a complete disdain for formal, conventional education. Later, Hesse apprenticed in a Calw tower-clock factory and in a Tübingen bookstore. His family had strong India connections, with his grandfather Hermann Gundert having served in Kerala, India, on a Basel mission as a missionary who translated the Bible into Malayalam. Hermann Gundert was a scholar, with a PhD in Philosophy, a polyglot fluent in multiple languages, an Orientalist and a philologist who was deeply interested in Indology. Hesse was blessed with a huge, well-endowed library during his childhood belonging to his grandfather, with books on German literature and philosophy of the 18th century. His mother, Marie Gundert, was born in Southern India in a mission, and his parents had met each other in India. His father, Johannes Hesse, son of a doctor, had worked in a mission in India and later worked for the Calwer Verlagsverein, a publishing house which was managed by his grandfather Hermann Gundert.
His grandfather exercised enormous influence on young Hermann, and it was through him and his parents that he discovered Indian spirituality and mystical traditions while growing up at home—again, which was the source of inspiration for his novel Siddhartha.
In his own words:
‘The world of Indian religion and poetry was far more enticing.’
Hermann Hesse discovered the treasure troves of ideas of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism by reading the scriptures along with the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita. Hesse deeply admired specifically the Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta, and was a fan of the Upanishads.
In his own words, here are two quotes:
‘European spirit is in decline and needs to return to its Asian sources’—which was a very German concept, especially amongst the Romanticists.
‘The whole East breathes religion in a way the West breathes Reason and Technology.’
Hermann Hesse found the refreshing ideas from India and the broader East highly rejuvenating, and they left a lasting impact.
Again, in his own words:
‘Open myself to the first messages that reached me from the Indian world without resistance, and they have had a lifelong effect.’
Interestingly, Hermann Hesse never set foot in India; the closest he visited was Ceylon, which is current-day Sri Lanka. Hesse was inspired by this ideal of a mythical, spiritually rich Orient and set sail in 1911 in a ship on a journey to Asia.
Now I wish to dwell, in my concluding section, on a brief analysis of the twin German influences or elements which are evident or characteristic of the novel Siddhartha.
A few words about the plot and summary of the novel Siddhartha:
This is a story of a restless Brahmin boy, Siddhartha, growing up in a comfortable, affluent setting in a palatial home with a scholarly pundit father who is compassionate and kind. As a matter of fact, the first chapter is called ‘The Brahmin’s Son’. Siddhartha decides at one point to embark on a voyage of self-seeking spiritual enlightenment, which involves the renunciation of the comfortable life at home.
His father strongly disapproves of his idea to abandon the comforts of home for the wilderness or the wider unknown.
But Siddhartha is seized by this thirst for knowledge and possesses a ‘Soul’ which is stirred by impetuosity. Finally, his father relents and offers his blessings, with the generous offer to welcome him back home if he is ever disappointed in his search.
In this ascetic’s journey, wandering in the forests and the wilderness of nature, he has company in his friend Govinda. This spiritual, meandering quest goes on for three years, and in that period he encounters Lord Gautama Buddha, the Great Master, who calls him clever but warns him that he is too smart. If I may quote the exact words: ‘You are clever, O Samana,’ said the Illustrious One. ‘You know how to speak cleverly, my friend. Be on your guard against too much cleverness.’
Apropos this meeting, Siddhartha parts company with Govinda, who is completely mesmerized by Lord Buddha. However, Siddhartha is sceptical about the notion of ‘received wisdom’ from enlightened Great Masters, but firmly believes in the solitary pursuit and that enlightenment is a very individualized, solitary experience. One needs to be completely detached, with no teacher, no doctrine and no company in this pursuit. In the book, the next phase of the journey or quest is classified as Part 2, the first one being that which symbolizes the conventional approach of masters and doctrines as Part 1.
In the next phase, Part 2, Siddhartha has this very romantic, amorous and intriguing encounter with a courtesan, Kamala, and he is totally charmed by her and aspires to be her consort or companion.
Intriguingly, Kamala senses complete ‘naivete and distraught senses’ and ‘detachment and delusion’, and injects a dose of realism in their first meeting with the statement ‘Dear one, needs money’, and that he should acquire some wealth. She poses the question to him, ‘What can you do? What are you good at?’—to which Siddhartha responds, ‘I can think, I can wait and I can fast.’ Kamala offers him a sales agreement and asks him to scribble something on it after reading, his observations which leave her impressed. She arranges a meeting with a merchant who employs Siddhartha, and he is engaged by this merchant in the service of trade, buying and selling goods. But guess what? He gets tired, exhausted and disillusioned—a total déjà vu—and quits the job or assignment.
At that point of departure from his engagement with the merchant, he has this reflection:
‘The life of materialism people lead here in this world is easy’ and it ‘presents no difficulties’.
Siddhartha again heads for the unknown in a complete state of disarray and suffering, and contemplates suicide by the river. At that critical juncture, he meets his old friend Govinda, who offers him solace and holds him back from the ghastly act. Siddhartha is saved from the peril of suicide by the sudden flashback or remembrance of ‘OM’, which symbolizes Brahman and the indestructibility of life.
A ferryman, Vasudeva, whom he met earlier, reappears, and he rows Siddhartha across the river and offers him a job as his assistant and shelter at his residence, taking pity on his deplorable mental and emotional state.
Siddhartha lives the life of a ferryman’s assistant while pondering over deep existential questions in his spiritual quest, and then one fine day he is confronted by his ‘haunted past’ when Kamala the courtesan appears with his son in his life. Siddhartha had borne a son with Kamala in the past. Tragically, Kamala dies by a snake-bite, and then he has these unpleasant and awkward interactions with his son, who abandons him, which leaves him heart-broken.
Finally, after all these trials and tribulations, and facing the travails of life, Siddhartha receives wisdom and enlightenment.
Vasudeva bids adieu and retires from ferrydom, and in the concluding scene he confides in Govinda the summarization of his realization or insight gained from the spiritual wandering:
‘Real freedom is a realization that there are no goals, there is only the now…’
‘We must live in the present like the river…’
‘Everything returns, everything changes and nothing remains the same…’
Now I wish to dwell, in my concluding section, on a brief analysis of the twin German influences or elements which are evident or characteristic of the novel Siddhartha.
1.0 GERMAN LITERARY TRADITION/STYLE – BILDUNGSROMAN:
Bildungsroman—the quintessential definition is that of a novel chronicling the protagonist’s intellectual, emotional and spiritual evolution and growth. A literary genre which captures and celebrates the essential life experiences of an individual, encountered by choice or fate, until the individual attains or reaches the position of competence in dealing with what life is all about. A kind of ‘coming of age’ story of an individual captured in the form of a narrative.
The Bildungsroman ideal, with its focus on individual development or evolution, corroborates closely with the literary style and narrative or plot of Siddhartha. The Bildungsroman is completely in tune with the individual journey or voyage with the yearning or quest for spiritual enlightenment.
This spiritual quest has this strong element of search for the true ‘essence’ of knowledge or wisdom, or the great truths implicit in this wisdom, which are all salient features of the novel Siddhartha.
There is an interesting essay by Alessandro Melazzini titled ‘Hermann Hesse, the Eastern Wayfarer’: ‘A father can give his son a nose and eyes, and perhaps intelligence, but not a soul. This is new in every man.’
As we witnessed, Siddhartha refused to become a disciple of Lord Gautama Buddha.
Some of the great traditional German masterpieces of Bildungsroman include Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister and Novalis’s Henry von Ofterdingen.
Travel or voyage is a theme which resonates strongly in Bildungsroman, where it is a metaphor for the protagonist embarking on a search for life’s questions from childhood to adulthood—a painful and necessary inner path towards achieving Heimat, which is broadly defined as the true home or the inner sanctuary. Again, this theme is omnipresent in the novel Siddhartha, which again places it squarely in the tradition of the Bildungsroman.
Here I must apologize profusely for butchering the definition of ‘Heimat’, a very prominent word in German literature and philosophy, in the presence of such bright and smart German literary and linguistic experts. I wish to invite the audience to participate in conversations in case they are interested to know more about this German term.
Just reinforcing the Bildungsroman character of the novel Siddhartha, I wish to quote a section where Siddhartha mentions in his own words:
‘I am going nowhere, I am only on a journey, I am wandering.’
2.0 INFLUENCES – GERMAN ROMANTICISM:
German Romanticism was an intellectual, cultural, aesthetic and literary movement of the 19th century which countered the rationality of the French Enlightenment with its focus on emotions, human imagination and the notion of ‘Innerlichkeit’, or inner search for meaning.
Again, my apologies for butchering another profound German concept owing to time constraints, but I am sure the audience can receive wisdom during the interactions with the speakers.
Hesse was an avid reader of the German Romantics like Novalis and E.T.A. Hoffmann, apart from Goethe. Hermann Hesse was deeply influenced by the ideals of German Romanticism and started writing along the Romantics’ style with fairytales, both in manner and matter.
The Romantics’ idea that ‘life in its essence and in all its mystery and hope could be depicted adequately through fairy tales’ was possibly the driving force in Hesse for his fairy-tale debut.
Hesse was drawn to Goethe’s focus on ‘interior life’ and Romanticism’s focus on the ‘secret wellsprings of the soul’, which manifested in the storytelling or narrative of Siddhartha in the following forms:
- Paens to Beauty
- Veiled Yearnings
- Melodic Laments
- Exotic Fantasies
In the specific case of Siddhartha, we can discern the Romantics’ tradition of storytelling in the following dimensions or elements:
- Exotic settings
- Lyrical language
- Evocative descriptions
- Flow and rhythm of language
- Elusive symbolism
Monasticism held a particular attraction of symbolism in the Romantics’ philosophy and storytelling, which is a very predominant theme in Siddhartha. Protagonists in search of their soul, or being preoccupied with spirituality and sensuality as manifest in Siddhartha, are very much in accordance with the philosophy of German Romanticism.
Exoticism and mysticism are very distinct elements of the Romantics’ style of storytelling.
As I draw my exposition to an end, I wish to state that Siddhartha is in complete conformance with respect to the literary style of Hermann Hesse, particularly with respect to the notion of this ‘likeable vagabond’. Most of Hesse’s works were strewn or characterized by this leitmotif of the sublime ‘poetry of wandering’. We find in his literary works this ‘free, happy and good-for-nothing’ individual who is afflicted with this romantic yearning for reconciliation between individual poetry and the ‘prose of the world’. Most of his protagonists spend their entire lives in this pursuit of a contemplative life. As we know, it is precisely these elements which attracted the Hippies and Bohemians to the novel Siddhartha, along with the exoticism and mysticism.
Finally, I hope you enjoyed and found it all entertaining. This was in tune with my personal love and adoration of that Bohemian wandering soul with a sense of detachment from the material world.
Wishing you a pleasant and enriching evening ahead!
Thank you very much!
