The Beatles visit India for the first time

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On July 5, 1966, The Beatles left Manila after being physically threatened because they didn’t join an invitation by the Philippines’ First Lady, Imelda Marcos. In the early morning of July 6, after a brief refuelling stop in Bangkok, they arrived in New Delhi, India, thinking it would be a chance to escape their fame for a few days before heading back to London. They had thought no one in India had heard of them, but they were wrong! Hundred of fans greeted their arrival at the airport, and the Oberoi Hotel, where they stayed, was soon surrounded.

From Wikipedia:

Before leaving London, Harrison had arranged to disembark in Delhi with Aspinall on the return trip, and buy a top-quality sitar there. During the tour, the other Beatles had each decided to join the pair, although, after their troubles in Manila, all of the band would have preferred to return to London immediately. Their plane landed at night at Delhi’s Palam Airport. While the Beatles had assumed that they were unknown in India, they were welcomed by a crowd of 500 fans and journalists and forced to give a brief press conference. The group’s two-day stay in Delhi similarly came to resemble the stops throughout the tour in terms of media attention and periods of confinement in their hotel, the Oberoi.

On 6 July, the band managed to evade the fans camped out in front of the hotel and go to Connaught Place. There, they shopped for Indian musical instruments at Lahore Music House and the prestigious instrument-makers Rikhi Ram & Sons. Since their presence had soon attracted a crowd of fans, the Beatles arranged for the Rikhi Ram staff to visit them later at the Oberoi Hotel with a sitar for Harrison, as well as a sarod, tambura and tabla. The entourage were also given a tour of Delhi, during which their Cadillacs were chased by a vehicle carrying the head of the local Associated Press bureau. Once the journalist had received a comment from McCartney about the controversy in Manila, the tour continued on to villages outside the city. The primitiveness and poverty they saw there was a shock to the band. Starr described India as the first genuinely “foreign” country he had visited; Harrison found it sobering to realise that their Nikon cameras, which were a gift to the group from their Japanese promoter, “were worth more money than the whole village would earn in a lifetime”. Other locations they visited while in Delhi included the historic Red Fort and Qutb Minar.

At the Oberoi, the Beatles discussed the recent events in Manila and privately expressed their dissatisfaction with Epstein’s management of their tours. According to Brown, when Aspinall said that Epstein was already booking concerts for 1967, Lennon and Harrison insisted that their current tour would be their last. They relayed this decision to Epstein either at the hotel, where he was bedridden with a high fever, or during the flight to London. The decision was also informed by the band’s increasing dissatisfaction with the inadequate sound systems at the venues they played and the inane questions they faced at each press conference.

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Before the tour was planned, I had an arrangement made that on the return journey from the Philippines to London I would stop off in India, because I wanted to go and check it out and buy a good sitar. I had asked Neil if he would come with me, because I didn’t want to be in India on my own. He agreed, and we had booked for the two of us to get off in Delhi.

Somewhere between leaving London and going through Germany and Japan to the Philippines, one by one the others had all sad, ‘I think I’ll come, too.’ But we got to Delhi and, after the experience in the Philippines, the others didn’t want to know. They didn’t want another foreign country – they wanted to go home.

I was feeling a little bit like that myself; I could have gone home. But I was in Delhi, and as I had made the decision to get off there I thought, ‘Well, it will be OK. At least in India they don’t know The Beatles. We’ll slip in to this nice ancient country, and have a bit of peace and quiet.’

The others were saying, ‘See you around , then – we’re going straight home.’ Then the stewardess came down the plane and said, ‘Sorry, you’ve got to get off. We’ve sold your seats on to London,’ and she made them all leave the plane.

So we got off. It was night-time, and we were standing there waiting for our baggage, and then the biggest disappointment I had was a realisation of the extent of the fame of The Beatles – because there were so many dark faces in the night behind a wire mesh fence, all shouting, ‘Beatles! Beatles!’ and following us.

We got in the car and drove off, and they were all on little scooters, with the Sikhs in turbans all going, ‘Hi, Beatles, Beatles!’ I thought, ‘Oh, no! Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but Beatles have nowhere to lay their heads.’

George Harrison – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

That was our first time in India, and it was quite interesting; but we had a bad day when the guys from British Airways took us out to see a camel drawing water – they go round in circles to work the pump where the water comes out. You could always tell the people who worked for BA in Delhi, because they all wore ties even though it was about 300 degrees in the shade. One guy thought it would be a bit of fun to jump on the poor animal that was walking round – probably that was all it would ever do in its life, drag this harness and draw the water. It was crazy, so we all got a bit angry with him.

But then we went shopping, and going around looking at the shops is probably the biggest memory of that time in Delhi. We were offered huge pieces of ivory carvings, and we thought it was all too expensive – huge chess pieces, which would now be antiques and worth fortunes. But I’m glad we didn’t buy it; even in those days we were thinking not to buy ivory.

Ringo Starr– From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

The Beatles were furious with Brian. They blamed his ineptitude for the entire incident [in Manila]. Down the hall from Brian’s suite, in their own interconnecting rooms, they drank scotch and Cokes and passed joints as they discussed the terrifying events in Manila and the hysterical scene on the plane. It was the general consensus that Brian had “fucked up” and was no longer in control of the situation.

“And he’s got another world tour already booked for next year,” Neil said. “We’ve gotta do this again.”

Everybody in the room groaned. “Is this touring a fucking annual event?” George asked.

“Nobody can hear a bloody note anyway,” John said. “No more for me. I say we stop touring.”

Peter Brown – From “The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles“, 2002

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The Beatles had often been listening to Indian music during their 1966 world tour. Insiders recalled hearing Indian music being played in hotel rooms and on the yacht in Manilla. “Revolver“, their new album, hadn’t been released yet, but George Harrison had written and recorded “Love You To“, with Indian instruments and players.

The initial motivation for the Indian stop was for George Harrison to buy a sitar. All four Beatles, therefore, went to Rikhi Ram & Sons, a reputed shop on New Delhi’s Connaught Circle, to test and try instruments.

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The Beatles left India late in the evening of July 7 and flew back to England.

Last updated on November 27, 2022