Siddhartha vs. Ghandi

Tim Dills
10-16-09
Siddhartha vs. Ghandi


This paper will examine the similarities and differences of Ghandi being a civil rights activist who won a Nobel peace prize, and Siddhartha being a character searching for enlightenment in the book by Herman Hesse. After examining three similarities, I will take a look at three differences as well.

The first of these similarities is that both Ghandi and Siddhartha were searching for their own source of enlightenment. Secondly, both of these men found enlightenment in their own original way. Ghandi for instance was a huge person behind civil rights in India, Siddhartha, however, was more of a nomad going around to different places and trying different lifestyles.

Both Siddhartha and Ghandi found their own form of enlightenment. For example, Siddhartha found enlightenment talking to the river as a ferryman. He would spend his days on the river thinking about where it was going and where it had been. This made Siddhartha happy inside. Ghandi found enlightenment through leading peace and hunger strikes in India. Even though they found enlightenment in different ways. The reason Ghandi was so persistent in leading these strikes against the government was because he grew up in poverty and experienced the lack of civil rights first hand.

Lastly, they also both influenced the people around them. Ghandi had huge groups of followers who would participate in hunger strikes for India’s civil rights. Siddhartha only had Govinda, his childhood friend. Govinda treated Siddhartha as if he were the chosen one himself. Govinda looked up to Siddhartha so much because Siddhartha was always a good role model for him. Siddhartha was what Govinda wanted to be.

One of the main differences is that these two men lived in different time periods. Siddhartha took place in about 700 a.d. and Ghandi lived in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. The issues they had to deal with were much different because of the time period. The time periods were different because of the technology, Ghandi was so well known because there were newspapers and radio stations that talked about him.

Another difference was that Ghandi was more of a national figure. Siddhartha, however, wasn’t because he is merely a character in a book and no more than a figment of the imagination. Between these two men, Ghandi was one of the most influential men of our world in the past one hundred years. His extensive list of achievements include Time Magazines man of the year in 1930 and he was the runner up in person of the century, in first place was Albert Einstein. Ghandi has inspired many political figures such as Martin Luther King, Al Gore, and Barack Obama.

Siddhartha was more of a character based upon hand me down stories from generations past. Even though Siddhartha was a fictional character his experiences are purely hypothetical but motivational nonetheless.

The final difference is that a Hindu extremist assassinated Ghandi. Siddhartha was not assassinated at all. As you can see there is a major difference between assassination and death because of natural causes. The reason why Ghandi was assassinated was because the Hindu extremists did not like what he was doing. He was slowly but surely getting India’s rights back. I think Ghandi was one man who captivated the world’s attention with what he did.

Siddhartha started as a Brahmin’s son and decided that the Brahmin lifestyle was not for him because it was too dull. He then became a Samana, which was a nomad. He and his friend Govinda stayed with the Samanas until Siddhartha grew bored of the Samanan life. He then went to a woman and she showed him earthly pleasures. When Siddhartha found earthly pleasures did not make him happy, he became a ferryman.

As a ferryman, Siddhartha finally found eternal happiness, also known as enlightenment. Siddhartha found enlightenment through the stones on the riverbed because those stones calmed him down and acted as a relaxant for Siddhartha. He and his childhood friend Govinda would spend the rest of their days talking to the river and the stones in the river.

I enjoyed the book Siddhartha and would recommend the book to anyone who is looking for a short read packed with a lot of meaning. I do think, however, that the author could have included Govinda’s opinion and point of view more often in the book.

As far as the last word on Ghandi...the boy is slim!