Hitch Hiking to India in 1962

In 1962, two Cambridge students hitchhike to India, before hippies hit the trail. Andrew writes a diary, the comedy. John reads the map, thumbs throughout the night and now writes about the history, which make for tragedy. They travel through Yugoslavia where Catholic Croats had massacred Orthodox Serbians and Serbs would later murder 8,000 Muslims, Greece where 1.3 million Christians had been ‘exchanged’ for 480,000 Muslims, and Turkey where 600,000 Christian Armenians had died when deported to the Syrian desert where ISIS is now based. In Iran John faces a life-threatening mob following the CIA coup. In India, they meet anger over the partition just 14 years before, when 12 million became refugees and well over a half a million were killed because of their religion. They learn about the Sikhs and the attack on the Golden Temple by Indira Gandhi. However, the two friends received fantastic hospitality throughout. John compares these countries 50 years on, seeing the economic collapse in Greece and the refugees crisis in the Balkans. Vince Cable says: ‘This is a really interesting piece of work, which blends personal anecdote and adventure with the history and politics of the places visited on an epic journey. We are reminded that today’s tourist traps in the Balkans and Turkey, not to mention the Punjab, have a terrible history. But the kindness of the people that hitch hikers have to trust shines through as does the strength of the friendship of John and Andrew who made this journey of a lifetime.’