I’m not going to bore you today with tales of the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, mainly because I already bored you with many such stories some weeks ago. But given that Lounge is focusing on The Beatles and their Indian connection, I feel tempted to throw in my own two bits.
In popular legend, the 1960s have become the India decade. After all, wasn’t this the time when hippies flocked to destinations such as Pushkar? When the world first discovered Goa’s beaches? When entire generations of Europeans travelled overland to India in search of peace, harmony and lots of cheap hashish?
Well, yes and no.
Illustration: Malay Karmakar / Mint
India was big in the popular culture of the mid-1960s but only in a limited sort of way. Mahesh Yogi had his moment of fame and the Hare Krishnas appeared on the streets of New York. Ravi Shankar made Indian classical music seem trendy.
But, contrary to how we remember things now, India was not such a big deal for the decade’s rock stars. I doubt if Bob Dylan, most of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, or any of the folkies (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Joni Mitchell; Simon and Garfunkel; etc.) ever made it to our shores. Mick Jagger displayed some interest in India — and he’s been a frequent visitor ever since — but that was in his capacity as millionaire Brit jet-setter, not as Jumpin Jack Flash.
The reason we think of India as having loomed larger in the consciousness of the counterculture than the facts warrant is because of the connection with the Beatles. For most of the 1960s, the Beatles were pop music royalty. They wrote the best songs, sold the most records and set all the trends.
But, even here, we exaggerate. When the Beatles first came to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, they were drawn by the swami’s message, not by the country. If Mahesh Yogi had invited them to Wales (as he did once) they would have gone there instead.
Nor did they particularly enjoy their time in India. George Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd has written about the mosquitoes and about the inability of most of the band to eat any Indian food. Ringo was especially unhappy. Paul showed no interest in coming back to India. And John Lennon was soon to discover Japan.
In fact, the entire India boom can really be traced back to a single individual: George Harrison, the man they called the quiet Beatle.
It was George who discovered Indian music and put a sitar part in John’s Norwegian Wood. In an interview in 1976, George told me how Inner Light, one of the Beatles’ early Indian-influenced songs, was recorded by him in a studio in Mumbai in the absence of the other three members of the band. They hated it and it only came out as a B side.