The unending journey of this book takes Mark Tully from slums to skyscrapers as he explores the past, present and future not only of the subcontinent but of society, both eastern and western; how democracy is facing up to fundamentalism — Hindu, Muslim and an atheism he scathingly labels ‘aggressive secularism’. The Dawkins camp would not be welcome in his compound.
There was a time when Tully was the most famous Englishman in India — ‘What does Tully Sahib say?’ the man on the village charpoy would ask when political or economic upheaval loomed. Tully’s mellifluous voice filled the airwaves for the 22 years he ran the BBC’s New Delhi bureau, trusted and loved by his millions of listeners.
He embraced India; the warmth, humour and stoicism of its people, and the frustrations of its seemingly insoluble problems to the point where, two decades on, BBC suits (and some listeners) felt the brilliant reporter who brought alive the misery of street beggars, the horrors of the Bhopal chemical disaster and the India-Pakistan border conflict, had grown partisan.
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