Mark Tully
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Sir William Mark Tully,
KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...
(born 24 October 1935) is a British journalist and the former Bureau Chief of
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
,
New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
, a position he held for 20 years. He worked with the BBC for 30 years before resigning in July 1994. The recipient of several awards, Tully has authored nine books. He is a member of the Oriental Club.


Journalistic career

Tully joined the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
in 1964 and moved back to India in 1965 to work as the corporation's India Correspondent. He covered all the major incidents in South Asia during his tenure, ranging from Indo-Pakistan conflicts, Bhopal gas tragedy,
Operation Blue Star Operation Blue Star was a military operation by the Indian Armed Forces conducted between 1 and 10 June 1984 to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other Sikh militants from the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib), a holy site of Sikhism, and i ...
(and the subsequent assassination of
Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...
, anti-Sikh riots),
Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, former prime minister of India, occurred as a result of a suicide bombing in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu, India on 21 May 1991. At least 14 others, in addition to Gandhi and the assassin, were killed. It w ...
to the Demolition of Babri Masjid. He was barred from entering India during Emergency in 1975–77 when Prime Minister Mrs Gandhi had imposed censorship curbs on the media. Tully resigned from the BBC in July 1994, after an argument with
John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television and ...
, the then Director General. He accused Birt of "running the corporation by fear" and "turning the BBC into a secretive monolith with poor ratings and a demoralised staff". In 1994 he presented an episode of BBC's ''
Great Railway Journeys ''Great Railway Journeys'', originally titled ''Great Railway Journeys of the World'', is a recurring series of travel documentaries produced by BBC Television. The premise of each programme is that the presenter, typically a well-known figu ...
'', "Karachi to The Khyber Pass", travelling by train across Pakistan. As a well-known railway enthusiast,, he also presented "Steam's Indian Summer", an episode of the ''World Steam Classics'' series, produced by Nick Lera. Since 1994, he has been working as a freelance journalist and broadcaster based in New Delhi. He was the regular presenter of the weekly
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
programme '' Something Understood'' until the BBC announced its cessation in 2019. As a guest of the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue on 7 October 2010 he spoke on ''How certain should we be? The problem of religious pluralism''. He described his experiences and the fact that India had historically been home to all the world's major religions. He said that had taught him that there are many ways to God. Tully is patron of the British branch of Child in Need India (CINI UK). Tully is equally well versed in English and
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
. He had contributed his heartfelt efforts to keep literature alive and had been key speaker among 50 speakers of second Kalinga Literary Festival on 17 May 2015, where he explored the role of literature in nation building.


Awards and honours

Tully was made an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
in 1985 and was awarded the
Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...
in 1992. He was
knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...
ed in the New Year Honours 2002, receiving a
KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...
, and in 2005 he received the
Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...
. BAFTA in 1985 for lifelong achievement. He was conferred the coveted RedInk Lifetime Achievement Award of the Mumbai Press Club


Books

Tully's first book on India ''Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle'' (1985) was co-authored with his colleague at BBC Delhi, Satish Jacob; the book dealt with the events leading up to
Operation Blue Star Operation Blue Star was a military operation by the Indian Armed Forces conducted between 1 and 10 June 1984 to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other Sikh militants from the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib), a holy site of Sikhism, and i ...
, Indian military action carried out between 1 and 8 June 1984 to remove militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the buildings of the
Harmandir Sahib The Golden Temple is a gurdwara located in Amritsar, Punjab, India. It is the pre-eminent spiritual site of Sikhism. It is one of the Holy place, holiest sites in Sikhism, alongside the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Kartarpur, Pakistan, ...
(Golden Temple) complex in
Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...
, Punjab. His next book ''Raj to Rajiv: 40 Years of Indian Independence'' was written with Zareer Masani, and was based on a BBC radio series of the same name. In the US, this book was published under the title ''India: Forty Years of Independence''. Tully's ''No Full Stops in India'' (1988), a collection of journalistic essays, was published in the US as ''The Defeat of a Congress-man''.
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
wrote that ''"Tully's profound knowledge and sympathy .. unravels a few of the more bewildering and enchanting mysteries of the subcontinent."'' Tully's only work of fiction, ''The Heart of India'', was published in 1995. In 2002 came ''India in Slow Motion'', written in collaboration with Gillian Wright and published by Viking. Reviewing the book in ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'', Michael Holland wrote of Tully that ''"Few foreigners manage to get under the skin of the world's biggest democracy the way he does, and fewer still can write about it with the clarity and insight he brings to all his work."'' Tully later wrote ''India's Unending Journey'' (2008) and ''India: The Road Ahead'' (2011), published in India under the title ''Non-Stop India''. In the area of religion, Tully has written ''An Investigation into The Lives of Jesus'' (1996) to accompany the BBC series of the same name, and ''Mother'' (1992) on
Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...
. The anonymously authored ''Hindutva Sex and Adventure'' is a novel featuring a main character with strong similarities to Tully. Tully himself has stated that "I am amazed that Roli Books should publish such thinly disguised plagiarism, and allow the author to hide in a cavalier manner behind a ''nom-de-plume''. The book is clearly modelled on my career, even down to the name of the main character. That character's journalism is abysmal, and his views on Hindutva and Hinduism do not in any way reflect mine. I would disagree with them profoundly". His latest book ''Upcountry Tales: Once Upon A Time In The Heart Of India'' (2017) is a collection of short stories set in rural north India.


Personal life

Tully was born in
Tollygunge Tollygunge (; nicknamed 'Mini Mumbai' or 'Mini Bombay') is a locality of South Kolkata, in West Bengal, India. It is known for being the center of Indian Bengali-language cinema, with filming locations used for other regional Indian films. G ...
in India His father was a British businessman who was a partner in one of the leading managing agencies of the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
. He spent the first decade of his childhood in India, although without being allowed to socialise with Indian people; at the age of four, he was sent to a "British boarding school" in
Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...
, before going to England for further schooling from the age of nine. There he was educated at
Twyford School Twyford School is a co-educational, private, preparatory boarding and day school, located in the village of Twyford, Hampshire, England. History Twyford states itself to be the oldest preparatory school in the United Kingdom. It moved to its ...
(Hampshire),
Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...
and at
Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...
, where he studied
Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
. After Cambridge, Tully intended to become a priest in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
but abandoned the vocation after just two terms at Lincoln Theological College, admitting later that he had doubts about "trusting issexuality to behave as a Christian priest". In 2001 he married Margaret, with whom he has four children in London. When in India, however, he lives with his girlfriend Gillian Wright. Tully also holds an Overseas Citizenship of India card.


See also

*
List of Indian writers This is a list of notable writers who come from India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by ...


References


Further reading

*


External links


Mark Tully: The voice of India

BBC Radio 4 programme "Something Understood"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tully, Mark 1935 births 20th-century British essayists 20th-century British journalists Alumni of Lincoln Theological College Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge British Christians British radio personalities British travel writers British political writers Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Living people People educated at Marlborough College People educated at Twyford School Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education Writers from Kolkata Journalists from Kolkata Christian and Hindu interfaith dialogue British expatriates in India People with Overseas Citizenship of India