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Journey of fate and journalism
Sir Mark Tully is a believer in fate. It is fate, he says, that has lead to his close ties with South Asia, particularly India where he has lived for nearly 40 years. "I don't believe I am a foreigner here. I owe a great debt to the people of this region," says the veteran BBC journalist who is in Colombo to attend the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) biennial conference.

Being a full- time journalist for so many years meant Tully has been in the frontline of some of the biggest events that took place in South Asia in the past four decades. He recollects the Bangladesh war, the hanging of Pakistan's former leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the ethnic riots in Sri Lanka, the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as some of the unforgettable stories he's reported on.

He sees as positive the great economic progress that has been achieved by India as well as Sri Lanka but says that tragically, religion has been brought more into politics in India today. "Religious intolerance is alien to the spirit of India as well as Sri Lanka. These countries have a proud tradition of tolerance," he says.

Which is why he says he was horrified when he was in Colombo in 1983 during the ethnic riots. "When I was here for the Non-Aligned Conference in 1976, it was such a peaceful place. But I am thrilled with the peace process and hope and pray it will succeed.”

It's been a long journey for Tully, one that ironically began in India itself. The year was 1935 when he was born in Calcutta, the legendary Indian city that continues to be a place he is especially fond of.

His father was a businessman in Calcutta while his mother's side of the family had been "British Indians" who had lived there for at least three generations. His godfather after whom he was named, was Mark Carpenter Garner who incidentally was familiar as the Bishop of Colombo in those years. "He was a fine, pious man," Tully says of Garner.

The first nine years of Tully's life were spent in India where he attended a special school that had been set up in the hill station of Darjeeling for children of foreigners. "Because of the war, there were no ships sailing out of India. So we stayed there till 1945. That year, we all moved to England except my father who stayed on because of his business," Tully recalls.

He attended school in the southwest and southeast of London before at the age of 18 he was recruited to the army, a compulsory service at the time. But he describes his two-year tour of duty in Germany as being "boring”. "The war had ended by then. There was no excitement."

When his military service ended, Tully went to Cambridge University where he studied history and theology for three years. "As I had studied theology, I wanted to be a priest. So I joined a seminary of the Church of England." Unfortunately, his fondness for beer meant the end of that career when the Bishop there very kindly told him, “You are more in place at a public house than a seminary.”

For the next four years from 1960 to ’64, Tully worked for a private charity that provided housing for old people. It was after he resigned from this job along with several others over an administrative problem there that he managed to get a job at the British Broadcasting Corporation.

His initial job was in the Personnel Department, which he did not like much. "Those days if there were openings within the organization, we had to compete for them. So when a job was out on the board for an ‘assistant representative’ in Delhi, I applied and by my good fortune got it," he said.

It was December 1964 when he set sail to India but the job was an administrative one, which he managed to turn into a broadcasting job. "When you were with the BBC, you wanted to be in broadcasting and not anything else."

Tully still recollects his first broadcast. "It was a short broadcast on the annual Statesman Vintage Car Rally in New Delhi."

By 1969, the BBC had decided that Tully had enough experience to be the Editor of its Hindi, Bengali and Tamil language services. Today Tully's speech is lined occasionally with Hindi phrases. Does he speak fluent Hindi? "Chalta hai," (can manage), he says.

From here Tully moved onto being the Chief Talks Writer on South Asia for the BBC World Service, as he wanted to do “proper journalism”. In 1969 he moved back to London and stayed on there till 1972 by which time his successor in Delhi had been asked to leave India. The BBC then decided they needed someone with enough experience in India and decided to send Tully back there.

For India, 1975 was a watershed year when the government declared a state of emergency and the BBC decided to move out as it did not accept the censorship imposed on the media. Tully returned to London and worked in the newsroom. By 1977, the BBC decided to return to India and from there Tully worked for the station till he resigned in 1994. His resignation from the BBC itself was a high profile issue. "I had made a speech attacking the new management of the BBC, and I felt I could not stay on as a member of an organization that I had criticized so strongly," he explains.

Tully is still a British citizen and lives in India on a visa he renews every five years. These days he is working to get himself "a person of Indian origin” status. "I have learnt a great deal from India. India has influenced my thoughts and I have learnt to respect fate.”

A regular churchgoer, Tully says he is dedicated to the idea that there is a God, a higher being. Will he ever leave India? "Because I am a believer in fate, I will not say I will never leave India. But I can categorically say I have no plans to leave India."

Maybe it's fate that Tully has been living in the same house - an apartment at Nizamudeen in central Delhi - for the past 26 years. The place itself is historical. On one side stands the tomb of Moghul Emperor Humayan while across the road is the shrine of Hazrath Nizamudeen, a famous Sufi saint who is revered by his followers. It is only a 15 minute drive from the Indian Parliament.

Since his resignation from BBC, Tully has been working as a freelance broadcaster, journalist and writer. He has written six books, three while he was with the BBC and three since his resignation. The books include Operation Blue Star, which he co-authored with a BBC colleage, Raj to Rajiv, which deals with 40 years since India's independence, No Full Stops in India, The Four Lives of Jesus, The Love of India, a collection of short stories and India in Slow Motion, his latest book which he co-authored. This last book deals with the need for India to dispense with its bureaucratic system of administration and modernize it. Besides his freelance writing and broadcasting work, Tully spends time with his dog and enjoys a beer in the evening with his friends. He also enjoys listening to music- classical, western and Indian. "I know little about pop," he smiles.

Does he miss the excitement of not being there to cover the big stories?
"I've had a good run. Sometimes I miss it but I am glad I am away from it in a way."

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