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
Non-Stop India By Mark Tully Jugaar can loosely be translated as muddling through, or making do. This is undoubtedly a valuable talent and has seen India through numerous crises which could have destabilised a country that is less adaptable - four wars, for example. But while jugaar can be seen to have served India well in the past, it has a downside. It has led to a dangerous complacency, the belief that as India has muddled through so many times before, there is no need for urgency in tackling the problems it faces. In Non Stop India veteran journalist Mark Tully draws on his unmatched knowledge of India, garnered from thirty years of living in, and reporting from, the country, to examine how this approach impacts on her much-touted prospects of becoming an economic super-power. From Maoist conflicts to huge industrial houses; from the Tiger project to farmer suicides; from the Ramayana to the remote valleys of the north-east, Tully examines India's myriad negotiations with modernity and her prospects for the next century and beyond. Today, India is likely to become one of the major economies of the twenty- first century. But many unresolved questions remain about the sustainability of such growth and its effect on the stability of the nation. Veteran journalist Mark Tully draws on thirty years of reporting India and travels the length and breadth of the country to find the answers. Have the changes had any impact on the poor and marginalised? How can the development of the country's creaking infrastructure be speeded up to match its huge advances in technology and industry? With a gift for finding the human stories behind the headlines, he looks at the pressing concerns in different areas of life such as governance, business, spirituality and ecology. In revealing interviews with captains of industry and subsistence farmers, politicians and Dalits, spiritual leaders and bandits, Mark Tully captures the voices of the nation. From the survival of India's languages and the protection of wildlife, to the nation's thriving industries and colourful public affairs, Non-Stop India is a testament to India's vibrant history and incredible potential, offering an unforgettable portrait of this emerging superpower at a pivotal moment of its history. About The Author Sir Mark Tully was born in Calcutta, India in 1935. He was the Chief of Bureau, BBC, New Delhi for twenty-two years, was knighted in the New Year's Honours list in 2002 and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2005. Today, his distinguished broadcasting career includes being the regular presenter of the contemplative BBC Radio 4 programme Something Understood. His books include No Full Stops in India, The Heart of India, India in Slow Motion (with his partner and colleague Gillian Wright), and India's Unending Journey. He lives in New Delhi.
Since the Indian economy was liberated from bureaucratic, socialist controls in 1991, it has developed rapidly. A country once renowned for the backwardness of its industries, its commerce and its financial market is now viewed as potentially one of the major world economies of the twenty-first century. But there are many questions which need to be asked about the sustainability of this rapid economic growth and its effect on the stability of the country. Have the changes had any impact on the poor and marginalised? Can India's democracy contain the mounting resentment of those left out of the new economic order? Can a high growth rate be sustained with India's notoriously corrupt and inefficient governance? Can the development of its creaking infrastructure be speeded up? How is India going to feed itself unless agriculture is reformed? This timely book will answer these questions through interviews with industrialists and cricketers, God men and farmers, plutocrats and former untouchables. Full of fascinating stories of real people at a time of great change, it will be of interest to economists, business people, diplomats, politicians, as well as to those who love to travel and who take an interest in the rapid growth of one of the world's largest countries, and what this means to us in the West.
Sir Mark Tully is one of the world's leading writers and broadcasters on India, and the presenter of the much loved radio programme 'Something Understood'. In this fascinating and timely work, he reveals the profound impact India has had on his life and beliefs, and what we can all learn from this rapidly changing nation. Through interviews and anecdotes, he embarks on a journey that takes in the many faces of India, from the untouchables of Uttar Pradesh to the skyscrapers of Gurgaon, from the religious riots of Ayodhya to the calm of a university campus. He explores how successfully India reconciles opposites, marries the sensual with the sacred, finds harmony in discord, and treats certainty with suspicion.
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.
Stories Of Depth And Eloquence That Take Us To The Very Heart Of The Indian Experience 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 India 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.
Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi is a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest and least likely democracy. A riveting chronicle of the often brutal conflicts that have rocked a giant nation, and of the extraordinary individuals and institutions who held it together, it established itself as a classic when it was first published in 2007. In the last decade, India has witnessed, among other things, two general elections; the fall of the Congress and the rise of Narendra Modi; a major anti-corruption movement; more violence against women, Dalits, and religious minorities; a wave of prosperity for some but the persistence of poverty for others; comparative peace in Nagaland but greater discontent in Kashmir than ever before. This tenth anniversary edition, updated and expanded, brings the narrative up to the present. Published to coincide with seventy years of the country’s independence, this definitive history of modern India is the work of one of the world’s finest scholars at the height of his powers.
Reversing his parents immigrant path, a young writer returns to India and discovers an old country making itself new. Anand Giridharadas sensed something was afoot as his plane prepared to land in Bombay. An elderly passenger looked at him and said, Were all trying to go that way, pointing to the rear. You, youre going this way. Giridharadas was...
A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet - then spends the rest of his life trying to atone for the violence by hand printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve herself to death. Nine people, nine lives; each one taking a different religious path, each one an unforgettable story. William Dalrymple delves deep into the heart of a nation torn between the relentless onslaught of modernity and the ancient traditions that endure to this day. LONGLISTED FOR THE BBC SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE
