Mark Tully

Ten essays by the BBC's India correspondent, which provide a lively view of the panorama of India and show Tully's own love of this country.

No Full Stops in India

Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle

Amritsar

Non-Stop India

Fascinating... a Country That Is Fast Becoming One of the World's a Most Influential Nations

India's Unending Journey

Satish Jacob

Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle

India in Slow Motion

Klappentext: On 5th June 1984, the Indian army began its attack on the complex at Amritsar which houses the two most sacred shrines Generals who had pledge to minimum force, and on no account to violate the shrines, were not prepared for the fierce and adept resistance they encountered. Having suffered severe casualties, the infantry were driven back and as last resorts with approval from Delhi tanks were ordered in. The Akal Takht was virtually reduced to rubble. It is doubtful if Mrs. Gandhi would have initiated Operation Blue Star had she known how bloody and devastating would be the consequences of that 24 hour conflict.

India’s Westernized elite, cut off from local traditions, ‘want to write a full stop in a land where there are no full stops’. From that striking insight Mark Tully has woven a superb series of ‘stories’ which explore Calcutta, from the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad (probably the biggest religious festival in the world) to the televising of a Hindu epic. Throughout, he combines analysis of major issues with a feel for the fine texture and human realities of Indian life. The result is a revelation. 'The ten essays, written with clarity, warmth of feeling and critical balance and understanding, provide as lively a view as one can hope for of the panorama of India.’ K. Natwar-Singh in the Financial Times

No Full Stops In India

For more than twenty years Mark Tully was the BBC Chief of Bureau in Delhi and his name and his voice became synonymous with the country he had made his home. For years he sent back dispatches interpreting the subcontinent to the outside world, but the 'truth' of India is remarkably resistant to reportage. Imbued with his love for the country and informed by his vast experience, Mark Tully has woven together a series of extraordinary stories. All the stories are set in Uttar Pradesh and tell of very different lives. Of a barren wife who visits a holy man and subsequently conceives-but is it a miracle or something more worldly? Of a son's carefully laid plot to take revenge against his father's murderer, with a surprising twist when his case comes to court. Of a daughter, persuaded by her friends to spurn an arranged marriage, whose romance ends in blackmail. Of a man's inability to overcome the conventions of caste and go into business, which leads to his wife breaking purdah and taking control of the family. In these and in other stories, Mark Tully delicately probes the nuances of life in India.

The Heart of India

Beyond Purdah

A personal look by the author at the various lives of Jesus.

God, Jew, Rebel, the Hidden Jesus

An Investigation Into the Lives of Jesus

Once Upon a Time in the Heart of India

Upcountry Tales

Mark Tully is incomparable. No foreign commentator has a greater understanding of the passions, the contradictions, the charms and the resilience that constitute India. In India in Slow Motion, Tully and his colleague Gillian Wright delve further than ever before into this nation of over one billion people, attempting to unravel a culture that, famously, has always resisted unravelling. India in Slow Motion is the account of a journey that for Tully and Wright has no true beginning or end. Covering a diverse range of subjects-from Hindu extremism to child labour, Sufi mysticism to the crisis in agriculture, the persistence of political corruption to the problem of Kashmir-this book challenges the preconceptions others have about India, as well as those India has about itself. India is often depicted as a victim of forces too wild to be controlled-of post-colonial malaise, of religious strife, of the caste system, of a corrupt bureaucratic machine. India in Slow Motion refutes this, probing into the heart of the Indian experience and arguing that change is possible and that solutions do exist. In the process it brings the country and its people brilliantly alive.

Mark Tully

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