Sir William Mark Tully, one of the most influential and trusted voices in Indian journalism, passed away at a private hospital in New Delhi on Sunday. He was 90 and had been ailing for some time. He was admitted to Max Hospital in Saket a week ago.
Born in Tollygunge, Calcutta (now Kolkata), to affluent British parents in 1935, Tully spent his early childhood in India at a time when colonial social codes discouraged interaction with Indians. Ironically, what was denied to him as a child became the defining pursuit of his life. Over the next six decades, Tully immersed himself in India—walking its streets, listening to its people, and chronicling its contradictions with empathy and restraint.
He studied at a boarding school in Darjeeling before being sent to England for higher education at Marlborough College and later Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In later years, Tully often spoke of how deeply he missed India during that period. Recalling his early days in England after being selected for a knighthood in 2001, he described the country as “a very miserable place… dark and drab, without the bright skies of India.”
After Cambridge, Tully briefly considered the priesthood and enrolled at Lincoln Theological College. But the discipline of seminary life did not suit his temperament. In a 2020 interview with The UNESCO Courier, he described himself as “rather rebellious,” admitting that his time at the seminary lasted barely two terms. The BBC once noted, with characteristic candour, that the young Tully drank heavily and lived exuberantly—traits that contrasted sharply with the vocation he had briefly pursued.
India re-entered his life decisively in 1964 when the BBC posted him to New Delhi as its India Correspondent. What followed was a 30-year association with the broadcaster that would make him one of the most recognisable and respected foreign journalists in the country. Though briefly forced to return to London in 1969 after India barred the BBC over the broadcast of the documentary Phantom India, Tully came back in 1971. By 1972, he had been appointed BBC’s Bureau Chief in New Delhi, overseeing coverage of South Asia.
Tully’s calm, unsensational reportage became a hallmark during some of the most turbulent moments in independent India’s history. His work spanned the 1971 Bangladesh war, the Emergency (1975–77), the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the anti-Sikh violence of 1984, the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, economic liberalisation, and countless elections and social upheavals.
Generations of listeners across the subcontinent came to trust the measured voice of “From Our Own Correspondent” on the BBC World Service, often saying they believed a story only after hearing it from Mark Tully.
Operation Blue Star and the Punjab crisis formed the subject of his first major book, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi’s Last Battle (1985), co-authored with journalist Satish Jacob. His most influential work, No Full Stops in India (1988), distilled over two decades of reporting into essays that explored Indian society beyond headline events—from the Roop Kanwar sati case to the Kumbh Mela, and from television epics like Ramayan to the deeper distortions caused by imposed Western frameworks.
After leaving the BBC in 1994—following a public disagreement with then Director-General John Birt over what Tully described as a “culture of fear” within the organisation—he continued to host the spiritual programme Something Understood on BBC Radio 4 until 2019. No longer formally attached to any newsroom, he remained a prolific freelance writer and commentator based in Delhi.
Tully went on to author 10 books, fiction and non-fiction, all deeply rooted in India. India in Slow Motion (2002), co-written with Gillian Wright, examined issues ranging from Hindu extremism and Kashmir to agriculture, corruption and mysticism. His fiction works, The Heart of India (1995) and Upcountry Tales (2017), captured everyday Indian life with affection and quiet realism. Later works such as India’s Unending Journey (2008) and India: The Road Ahead (2011) reflected his enduring engagement with the country’s future.
In recognition of his contribution, Tully was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992, knighted in the UK’s New Year Honours in 2002, and received the Padma Bhushan in 2005—an exceptionally rare honour bridging official recognition from both Britain and India.
He spent much of his later life in New Delhi and McLeod Ganj, walking daily, conversing with ordinary citizens, and maintaining a deep curiosity about India’s social and political rhythms. A devout Anglican, he often spoke of the resonance between his faith and India’s lived pluralism.
On his 90th birthday last October, his son Sam Tully reflected on his father’s unique place in UK-India relations, writing: “Dill hai Hindustani, magar tora Angrezi bhi! The heart is Indian, but a bit English too.”
(With inputs from PTI)