From the Danger of the Routes to the Alleged Certainty About the Roots: The Journey to India from the Early Eighteenth to the Late Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

The contribution is about the question of how the way of travelling changes the dealing with human identities. The essay does not understand identity as something fixed or unchangeable: The multi-layered identities that a person has, is fluid and has many points of reference that only become obvious in concrete experiences of difference. This idea, that "roots" are answers to specific challenges posed by the environments surrounding people, is elaborated using selected travelogues from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which German-speaking people wrote about their experiences on the journey to India. The essay shows how much the technical development of these centuries, especially the new security and comfort of travel, have changed the view of the roots, of the ascribed human identities.