Bigger India
50 years on, India is celebrating the Beatles’ infamous trip to the country
Rock historian Philip Norman, who spoke about the Beatles at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year, says India probably “saved their sanity” and helped them stay together a little longer than they would have otherwise.
In February 1968, the Beatles embarked on their famous discovery of India to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now 50 years later India is rediscovering the Beatles — or at least the tourism potential of the world’s most famous rock band seeking salvation in the country.
A yoga festival in Rishikesh is having a Beatles special this month. A tribute band from England, the Fab Four, is supposed to perform there. There are plans for a Beatles Museum and what’s left of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, a 14-acre compound where the Beatles stayed, has been spruced up for tourists.