Probably something to do with yoga and shit becoming popular in west in the 60s. Popular = larger crowd = more high IQ individuals involved.
John McLaughlin was the first case of a western artist playing Indian music at the level of Indian classical musicians, most before him were shit.
There’s been foreign influence on western music for a century now. In the 1910s-20s it was Hawaiian music, and the ukulele became more o prominent in pop music. Conga being feature on every 60s jazz album onward, Caribbean and ska music bleeding over into grunge and rock(Sublime, Rush, the Police), polyrhythms and rhythmic melodic phrases in artists like 80s King Crimson and Steve Reich
Some psychedelic artists liked to push boundaries(the Byrds with 8 Miles High), while the Beatles and Rolling Stones just incorporated Eastern instruments into a pop setting to add “exotic” flair.