India's Unending Journey: Finding balance in a time of change

by Mark Tully

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.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Travel, History, Politics

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2007

About the author

Sir William Mark Tully was the Chief of Bureau for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi for 22 years. Schooled in England, he stayed mostly in India covering all major incidents in South Asia during his tenure. He was made an Officer of The Order of the British Empire in 1985 and was awarded the Padma Shree in 1992, a rare distinction for a non-Indian. He was knighted in the 2002 New Year Honours. In 2005 he received the Padma Bhushan.

Reviews

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 My memories of Tully are that once upon a time - Mark Tully used to appear on (erstwhile) Star/NDTV to analyse elections with Pranay Roy. There were 3 national elections in 3 yrs remember - 96/98/99 with the BJP on the rise and finally forming a full-term govt in 1999.
Unlike other panellists on the show, I found Tully and Shekhar Gupta to be somewhat nuanced. And as is clear from the book - Tully is not a typical retarded Leftist in-turn spoon-fed by retarded “Left-liberals” in India. Infact Tully is a “Conservative” (Right-Wing) who also endorses socialism and community while recognising the role of individualism and freedom.
The book is focused on Hinduism and the author’s love for its plurality and tolerance. And contrasting it with his own upbringing in a school that inculcated Christian monotheism and certainity.
Interestingly, there is an entire chapter on Ireland’s move towards secularism. I think irreligious and anti-religious are two different things. The latter attitude is again a sort of monotheistic proselytisation. Similarly, I maybe an atheist but I am not an anti-theist (like Dawkins & co).
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Why the low rating then ?
Firstly, I wish it had been more comprehensive and scholarly. This is one book I wish had been longer.
Secondly, Dr.Pravin Togadia and Mahatma Gandhi are not the either-or streams of Hinduism. There is the conveniently forgotten and demonised Savarkar and Dr.Ambedkar , especially when we talk of Abrahamic religions.
Also, I think there was some residual Semitic superiority in the author. Unlike in Dr.Koenraad Elst (Decolonising the Hindu mind).

[Subodh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Tully is one of those expatriates whose love and fondness for India does not colour their view of it by hiding its shortcomings and magnifying its strengths. Having lived in India for half a century he is confident enough of his relationship with this country to criticize it when criticism is due.

This book has a somewhat misleading title. It is not about India or its journey as such, but about the author's own self, his philosophy, his attitude to religion and science, and his perception of the eternal East-West twain. He uses India as a mirror to understand himself and his parent culture better and to become aware of the ways in which understanding of India can help the West moderate itself.

If I were to choose one word to describe Tully's India it is 'humility'. He is not saying that humility in inter-personal dealings is an Indian virtue. He means humility in the context of the civilization and the society's attempt to know and understand the ultimate reality. The West has tended to swing from one extreme to another: for a long time it knew that 'truth' was stated in the Bible. Now most of the Western world thinks religion has nothing to teach us and scientific inquiry is the only road to truth. India, on the other hand, has always striven to search for the 'truth' but never claimed to know it completely. It's tolerance for different faiths springs from this fundamental approach. Tully uses his experience and understanding of India to make a case for a resolution between science and spirituality in the West. Each chapter, apparently dealing with something quite different, ultimately returns to this unifying theme.

India: What It Can Teach Us by Friedrich Max Müller is the most famous attempt by a Western author to present learning from India to the West. Max Muller's treatment is based on study of India' philosophical and religious texts. Tully approach is humbler and based on his experience of living among the people of India. It has the readability of a journalist's account, but lacks the insight and depth that a philosopher can bring to the subject.

[Gajendra Dadheech · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a unique kind of autobiography by Mark Tully where he tells about what various cities, where he have been, taught him about religion, belief, economics, growth etc. One thing which is quite obvious after reading book is that he is quite romantic about India and Hinduism. In the end, he tells that he want to become a hindu but after knowing hinduism, he thinks that he can attain path to ultimate truth via Christianity as hinduism tells that there are many paths to Supreme. One thing worth noting and praiseworthy about this autobiography is thoughtfulness of Sir Tully. He puts several examples of various events and then connected them to point he wanted to convey. One example was that of stempede happened in London due to sale offering at opening of a store, this tells about how western society is becoming a consumer and more concerned about materialistic pleasure . He himself was fed up of this kind of soceity like many of other western people. In one of chapters where he tells about Maynooth, he tells how people are loosing faith in Church and moving towards hedonistic life. He tells people to pursue for balance in life rather then going for extremes, balance between mind and body, science and religion, socialism and capitalism etc. He puts a rare perspective of M K Gandhi in this book where suggests that Gandhi was considered as ascetic but he never himself said this. All that self-denial had a economist point of view.

Overall a good read, Nice to read about a foreigner falling in love with India. When you first see names of chapters, you seem to think it will more about those cities but the content of those chapters are quite insightful about human and social values. In his romanticism about India sometimes tries to defend the things which are not good such as casteism, telling that this division makes people come in contact with each other and help in some ways. Every chapter he ends with asking people to go for middle way, prefer evolution rather then revolution. That's why he says that this journey is never ending, as there are no absolute answers to most important questions in life, always relative, and keep on looking for them.

[Divakar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Tully is a venerable figure in the broadcasting community. He headed BBC – India for eons and was the last word for the British view on India. He is also a prolific writer and has written multiple books on India. One also sees him often on the multiple TV debates which are screamed ( sorry…it should be streamed) onto our TV screens at 9 pm every night.

I am still unable to figure out what this book is all about. Is it about the person who wants to be a priest and finally ends up as a journalist / commentator? Is it about India and its extreme opposites……is it about the done to death issues of caste, superstition, religion and all its divisiveness. So you have the usual chapters on the eroticism of Khajuraho interlaced with the conservative Indian society, the growing sub-culture of Gurgaon / now Gurugram….a city that grew too fast, journey’s into India’s hinterlands, the usual Westerner’s insight into issues uniquely Indian.

Or is it about the impact of the sub-continent on his own life ? Or is this book about nostalgia and revisiting and reliving old memories…both in India and UK….

The book left me confused and also decided to stay away from all his other books.

[Ramya Viswanathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written book. This is a fascinating meditation on the value of balance, lack of certainties in the world, the pull of different factors that make modern life. It looks through episodes in the author’s life, his experiences in various cities, at various times, with various people and draws lessons that would be useful to anyone. Mark Tully in this book advocates keeping an open mind, not being awash with certainties, being flexible in our thinking, building a balance between the material and the spiritual, between tradition and change, between faith and science, between man and nature. He advocates with passion and depth and sincerity. Definitely a good read.

[Meredith Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

More refection than autobiography, this is quite dense in its ideas as discusses intellectual themes such as the legacy of the Raj and its Victorian morality and secularism and the pressure for modern India to confirm to a Western materialist way of life. Underpinning this, however, is the constancy of the country’s diversity and essential humility of character.

[Latika Deo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is actually a series of lectures that were delivered on various occassions that have been assembled and redrafted in a manner which is suitable for a book. There a lot of publications referred in this book if one were to go in-depth about spirituality and religion and their place in this modern materialistic world.

[Ajay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mark Tully is here to tell his personal story -- born in India, educated in Britain, first a priest, then journalist, and later a foreigner living in India. The book is not really about India -- but a poorly written autobiography that uses India as a mirror to share the author's own philosophy and views (attitude to religion, etc...).

[Ravinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The certainty of uncertainty is truly India's contribution to the thought process of humanity. The writer makes the case for this through various personal, introspective stories, as well as a listener, retelling the stories of others

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about uncertainty. Unfortunately it seems to extend to the author’s vision for the book. He doesn’t seem to know why he’s writing. It feels random, padded and unfocused. It was interesting though.

[Joseph Dolphin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good

[Rachel Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this book. It seemed to talk more about Mark's life than about india. Which was not really what I wanted from this.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mark Tully is afraid of becoming too Indian, and is like the person fascinated by Gangaa but holds on to a chain on shore while attempting to wash a little of his grime.

Interesting how he sticks to his bringing up prejudices in various contexts where he can open his eyes instead to how much further India takes it. Changing emphasis in the story of Shiva and Paarvatie for instance, reducing the tremendous Divine to the objectified ignominous of a semitic background, not understanding the difference between penance and Tapas, and so forth.

Also, he minimises the various threats that India has faced far more than west, as long as they are from sources British found closer to their ethos - so the massacre of '46 is minimised to a bare mention rather than the graphic butchering of a few thousand within a day or two that occurred on command for the demand to divide India along religious demands of the intolerant. He rightly identifies the two parts thereafter as fanatic and secular, but fails to give enough credit to the mainstream religion of the secular nation for making it possible at all in the first place. (Most so called secular nations of the west have an underpinning nevertheless of some variety of religion recognised by some church as proper, with due recognition of other religions as dim as light of the brightest star on earth, no matter how brilliant it be compared to earth's sun.) Moreover, he fails to take into account the effect of the trauma of years, centuries of butchering suffered by the said mainstream culture still continuing in forms of terrorist attacks orchestrated from across the border, along with organisations like simi. He thinks stick wielders are more of a threat to peace because they speak out, and those that are ready to massacre with more modern weapons than they used in '46 (which was with knives) need no mention in threats to terror.

As for the usual albeit slightly better expo about castes, he shows the same shortcomings. West's failure to recognise that castes are everywhere including in Europe and have always been (the very word being of Anglo Saxon origin in English from German), only the structure of castes being different as in vertical strata unlike the usually horizontal one - in Indian system money is below intellectual and protective functions while elsewhere money is above all and united with power so the lower strata has very little hope to do better or have recognition, for one thing; women had knowledge on par with their male counterparts in India unlike in west, for another; and so forth - and as for being defined by birth, that anomaly in India came in with other cultures dominating after conquest and attempting to dismantle the indigenous culture, whence the discontinuation of the schools called ashrams conducted as live in places for all pupils accepted (various instances have been always clear about people of different backgrounds having lived their student days in the same place, with the poor Braahman - and Braahmans are usually very poor - along with princes and other rich pupils learning on par just as pupils from variety of other backgrounds). Tully has failed to see the significance of something like Mahaabhaarata, and goes only by the usual criticism lashing out from those that had a vested interest in destroying the indigenous culture and imposing theirs.

All in all, he makes it clear he has a long way to go towards evolving into a fair mind, much less a higher comprehension.

[Rhea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book taught me a good deal about my own country, and the strengths and weaknesses of India's pluralistic spiritual traditions and rich religious and cultural fabric. From the temples of Khajuraho and Puri, to the bustling city of Varanasi, to the Irish town of Maynooth, we have much to learn as readers from Sir Tully's experiences with life. This book is full of interesting and valid criticism and commentary on how life in India is evolving and theology in general. Tully also backs up his arguments with substantial evidence from diverse sources. The last chapter in particular was beautifully written and felt like a perfect and personal way to end the book. His call for an evolution of ideas, rather than revolution is inspiring. However, I do think his vision of the British Raj was a bit romantic at times and the adverse effects of colonialism and the Western neoliberal order could have been better acknowledged and not glossed over. I also think Tully glorifies Mahatma Gandhi and 'The Father of the Nation' is over-idealized within the Western perception of India (the uncomfortable account on Page 221 felt slightly problematic and was almost glossed over).

[Awinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a journey which has something for all. But mostly Sir Mark Tully talks about how Hinduism played a critical role in his life by teachig him things which he was not able to comprehend following his own religion. It is a unique type of autobiography. At times it looks like the author is prejudiced towards the Hindu religion and most of the times put it in a positve light, while portrayed the Western culture in dark shadows. {Though he very conveniently denies it at the end}
Nevertheless, the author justifies his every thought and every inference very aptly.
The book triggers a lot of thought processes in your mind, ranging from issues related to religion, patriotism, day-to-day life and many more.
Sir Mark Tully has written about himself in a way that shows his humble character and humility. I personally feel it is very difficult to write about oneself and be very balanced about it. But Sir Mark has done it perfectly.

[Deepak]

What I liked about this book is that there is a nice blend of philosophy, religion and journalism I'n it. His chapters talk about Puri, Marlborough, Delhi, Raipur, Cambridge, Maynooth, Khajuraho, Gurgaon, Darjeeling, Varanasi. Like his other book, There Are No Full Stops I'n India, this is a more mature work. Tully asks the question, how to live with the uncertainty of certainity. He has talked more about Hindu & Christian philosophy I'n this book. Tully has a very insightful, down- to -earth yet a simple understanding of India. His power of observation is keen.

[Narayan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I thought Mark Tully did a great job in explaining his reasoning behind why he thinks India's Journey is unending. The piece on Kashi is a must read. !!

Highly recommend this book. "

[Aakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

being an indian i didn't even know most things until i read this.

[Shivam Bhardwaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much religion, usual interpretation of Indian system. A wonky read.

[Sandeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

read and forgotten!

[Trinka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the uncertainty of certainty, about accepting the limits of what we know, and being willing to question our beliefs…

Written in June 2008

India’s Unending Journey by Mark Tully is a love story of uncertainties and paradoxes that abound in India. While the globe is teetering on the edge of energy and food crises, countries –developed or developing—are trying to find a balance between unbridled expansion of trade and keeping the planet safe for generations to come.

India has always been a kaleidoscopic fascination for the West, in spite of the servile nature of India during the British Raj, the abject poverty post-Independence, and the current trend of migration to other parts of the globe, particularly the United States. Walt Whitman and Emerson, iconic figures in American culture, drew inspiration and truth from Indian spiritual texts. It was the German scholars who managed to decipher the ancient Sanskrit texts.

For hundreds of years, the developed world saw the average Indian as a half-naked fakir on a bed of nails or a snake-charmer lost in the throes of his flute. Today the 21st century has brought about a change in the world’s outlook towards India. Today it feels exhilarated as well as threatened by the Indian IT worker, the scientist, the researcher, the manager. With leaps and bounds in economic progress, how does India maintain a balance between new wave consumerism and the irreducible spirituality embedded in the Indian subconscious?

Tully lauds the virtues of pluralism without ignoring its manipulations and dangers. Regarding fundamentalism, Tully reiterates the clash of civilizations that Samuel Huntington wrote about in the beginning of the 21st century. I would like to present here a poignant question Karen Armstrong has posed:

“Shouldn’t the United States and Europe take the time to consider whether their culture might appear to be aggressive to Muslims, just as Islam appears to be aggressive to them?”

I have recently read US presidential candidate Barack Obama’s Blueprint for Change. In his ‘Plan to Secure America and Restore Our Standing’, Obama talks about fighting terrorism and “…reaffirm American values.” I pray that he has a sensible policy towards the Iraq and Iran issue keeping in mind the sensitive ground he is treading on.

Tully has extended his love song to the Indian ethos be it the corruption or the bombings or the secularism. After all, he says, India knits all communities together and no matter what, they re-unite after a violent hiatus. Corruption, which walks along the corridors of power and government offices, has been dealt with disinterestedly and pragmatically. For instance, when speaking about the Union Minister for Railways, Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, turning the loss-making Indian Railways into a thriving profitable national asset, Tully quotes Lalu: “If you don’t milk the cow fully, it falls sick.”

Another issue that seems to peeve Tully is the hype on products of B-schools. He states, “It is a culture that believes business is a science whose findings are as conclusive as those of the physical sciences, and therefore like them, should not be questioned.” Finally, he ends with Varanasi, one of the oldest cities in the world. It is a confluence of Hinduism and Islam and nowhere can we find a better co-existence. When the bomb blasts occurred on 7th March, 2006, the Mahant of the Sankat Mochan temple, Veer Bhadra Mishra, and the Mufti of Varanasi, Abdul Batin Nomani together maintained harmony and prevented any faction from stoking communal fires.

All in all, a great book elucidating what India does not represent and acknowledging that India is always in a state of flux. That is its strength. And may it always be so.

[Siddhartha Das · Rating 4 out of 5]

The outside in perspective of Tully comes from experience and his own pursuits as to what constitutes India, in the present day context and what the world can learn from it.