PAUL OLIVER: Hinduism and the 1960s: The Rise of a Counter-Culture.

London
and New York: Bloomsbury, 2014; pp. xi + 189.
The contribution of Hinduism to the hippie culture of the 1960s West is varied, and
ranges from profound commitment to gurus, yoga, meditation, and religion to more
popular cultural references; brightly-coloured clothing, sitar music, and the erotic
athleticism of the Kama Sutra. This short book, which is set out like a textbook with
reader-friendly summaries at the start of each chapter, sub-headings, sparse
referencing, and brief bibliographies, tells the tale of a love affair between young
spiritual seekers who were disillusioned with the material emphasis of post-war
Western society and who found Christianity unsatisfying as a religious tradition. The
book, which is divided into three parts, opens with a sketch of Britain in 1960 and the
effect of the Lady Chatterleys Lover trial against Penguin Books for the alleged
publication of an obscene book. Chapter 1 introduces the Beat writers in the United
States, their interest in Zen Buddhism and travel to India, and the way in which these
themes had roots in the nineteenth century with Theosophy and the Worlds
Parliament of Religions held during the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in
1893 (at which Swami Vivekananda spoke to great acclaim and the Buddhist
delegation, including the charismatic Sri Lankan layman Anagarika Dharmapala and
the Japanese Zen monk Shaku Sen also impressed the mostly Christian audience).
Chapter 2 describes the context of emergent environmentalism, the civil rights
movement, the admiration many young people in the 1960s felt for Mahatma Gandhi,
and the importance of issues of gender and sexual equality that were raised by women
such as Betty Friedan, in The Feminine Mystique (1963) and Germaine Greer, in The
Female Eunuch (1970). Chapter 3 discusses the spiritual quests of 1960s youth, which
is the link to the second part of the book, Chapters 4 to 11.
The specific appeal of India is investigated in Chapter 4, The Philosophy of
Hinduism and Its Attractions for the Counter-Culture. This is a brief survey of the
various Indians scriptures. In Chapter 5 the celebrity factor emerges, as the Beatles
interest in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is chronicled. The sixth chapter is focused on the
attraction of drugs and psychedelic experiences for the counter-culture. Chapters 7 to
11 cover a range of topics to which Hinduism in some form is of relevance: the peace
movement; sexual freedom and tantra; ashrams and communal lifestyles; Ayurvedic

healing and the contemporary wellness industry; and meditation and yoga as spiritual
practices. Part Three considers the legacy of the 1960s counter-culture with reference
to three specific phenomena: travelling overland to India from Europe which birthed
the modern tourism industry in that part of the world; the way that meditation and
yoga have developed as secular practices; and the anti-materialist, ethical
consumption values that are espoused by individuals who wanted to pursue goals that
they cherished in a Hindu-framed or Hindu-derived fashion. The book is an easy read,
though there are annoying stylistic quirks that academic readers will dislike (for
example, book titles are not italicized), and there are occasional errors of fact, such as
giving the name of the Mother, Sri Aurobindos successor, as Mira Richards when she
was Mirra Alfassa (her second husband was Paul Richard). There is also a sense that
the real adventurousness and challenge of the counter-culture is here reduced to a
broadly nice and socially acceptable phenomenon (which may be reasonable given
the mainstreaming of the main currents described). This book is directed at
undergraduate students (and perhaps even high school students) and should find a
ready audience.
Carole M. Cusack
University of Sydney