BBC ‘Voice of India’ Sir Mark Tully dies aged 90

Sir Mark Tully, the broadcaster and journalist known for many years as the BBC’s “voice of India”, has died aged 90.

Sir Mark’s rich, warm tone has been familiar to BBC audiences in the UK and around the world for decades – he is a highly respected foreign correspondent and a respected Indian journalist and commentator. He reported on wars, famines, riots and assassinations, the Bhopal gas tragedy and the attack on the Sikh Golden Temple by Indian troops.

In 1992, in the small northern Indian town of Ayodhya, he faced real danger. He witnessed a large group of Hindu hardliners demolishing an ancient mosque. Some thugs who were skeptical of the BBC threatened him, chanting “Death to Mark Tully”. He was locked in the room for several hours before a local official and a Hindu priest came to his aid.

The demolition sparked some of India’s worst religious violence in decades – and he said years later that it was the “most serious setback” for secularism since India’s independence from Britain in 1947.

“We were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Mark Tully,” Jonathan Munro, interim chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, said in a statement. “As one of the pioneers of foreign correspondents, Sir Mark showcased India to the world through his reporting, bringing the country’s energy and diversity to audiences in the UK and around the world.

“His commitment to public service and dedication to journalism saw him become Delhi bureau chief and reporting for BBC outlets across the board. He was widely respected in both India and the UK and it was a pleasure to speak to him and he will be greatly missed.”

Sir Mark was born in 1935 in Calcutta (now Calcutta), India. He was a child of British India. His father is a businessman. His mother was born in Bengal – her family had been traders and administrators in India for generations.

He grew up with an English nanny who once scolded him for learning to count by imitating the family chauffeur: “That’s the servant’s language, not yours,” he was told. He eventually became fluent in Hindi, a rare achievement among Delhi’s foreign press corps and endeared him to many Indians, who continued to refer to him as “Tali Sahib”. His optimism and obvious affection for India won him the friendship and trust of many of the country’s top politicians, editors and social activists.

Throughout his life he performed a balancing act: unquestionably British; But he insisted that he was not a foreigner passing through India. He has roots there; this is his home. He spent three-quarters of his life here.

Just after the Second World War, nine-year-old Sir Mark came to England to receive an education. He studied history and theology at Cambridge before heading to seminary with the goal of being ordained as a priest before he and the church reconsidered.

In 1965 he was sent to India to work for the BBC, initially as an administrative assistant but later moving into reporting roles. His broadcasting style was unique, but his strength of character and insight into India shone through.

Some critics say he indulges too much in India’s poverty and caste inequality; others admire his articulated commitment to religious tolerance, on which independent India was founded. In 2016, he told an Indian newspaper that “it is very important to cherish the secular culture of this country and allow every religion to flourish. … We must not jeopardize that by insisting on Hindu majoritarianism.”

Sir Mark has never been an armchair journalist. He traveled relentlessly across India and neighboring countries, taking trains whenever he could. He expressed the hopes and fears, the trials and tribulations of India’s ordinary people and the nation’s elite. He is as comfortable in an Indian kurta as he is in a shirt and tie.

In 1975, he was deported from India with 24 hours’ notice after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered a state of emergency. But he returned 18 months later and has been stationed in Delhi ever since. He was the BBC’s Delhi bureau chief for more than 20 years, leading coverage not just of India but of South Asia, including the birth of Bangladesh, the period of military rule in Pakistan, the Tamil Tiger insurgency in Sri Lanka and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Over time he became increasingly out of touch with the BBC’s corporate priorities, and in 1993 he gave a widely publicized speech accusing then-director-general John Birt of running the corporation through “fear”. It marks the parting of paths. The following year, Sir Mark resigned from the BBC. But he continued to air on BBC radio, notably as presenter of Radio 4’s Something Unstood, returning to the issues of faith and spirituality that had preoccupied him as a student.

Unusually for a foreigner, Sir Mark was awarded two of India’s highest civilian honours: the Padma Shri and the Padma Shri. Britain also gave him recognition. He was knighted in the 2002 New Year Honors List for services to broadcasting and journalism. He described the award as “an honor for India”.

He continued to write books about India—essays, analyses, short stories, sometimes in collaboration with his partner Gillian Wright. He lives in south Delhi and leads a simple life.

Sir Mark never gave up his British citizenship but was proud to become an overseas citizen of India in his later years. This, he said, made him “a citizen of two countries where I consider myself a citizen of both India and Britain”.