Mark Tully to give annual Toleration lecture at the University of York
Posted on 28 April 2000
Through his broadcasts and writings Mark Tully has been the principal interpreter of India for British audiences for the previous three decades. He joined the BBC in 1964, and from 1965 to 1994 served as a BBC correspondent in India, rising from Assistant Reporter in New Delhi to BBC South Asia Correspondent. Since 1994 he has been a freelance journalist and broadcaster, continuing to be based in New Delhi. Over these years his radio and TV broadcasts have covered the great stories which agitated the sub-continent.
In addition to the many broadcasts Mark Tully has made on current events, he presented the BBC series The Lives of Jesus in 1996 - he is the author of the book which accompanied the series. With Satish Jacob he is the author of Amritsar - Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle - an account of the conflict which centred on the storming of the Golden Temple, and with Z Masani From Raj to Rajiv - a book which accompanied his radio series of the same title which traced the story of India's first forty years of independence.
Mark Tully's book No Full Stops in India is a collection of essays centring on widely different events and themes in order to explore Indian politics, society and culture. The ancient traditions of Indian civilization are menaced as they have not been in centuries by the tendencies of global consumerism. Yet Mark Tully also believes that these traditions bear values vital not only for India, but for the world. These writings are the background for Mark Tully's public lecture at the University of York.
The annual Morrell lecture series is intended to make a contribution to thought on the subject of Toleration. The series of speakers is highly distinguished - among other eminent previous lecturers have been Lord Scarman, Baroness Warnock, Sir Edward Heath, Dr Carey (the Archbishop of Canterbury), Professor Bernard Williams, Helena Kennedy QC, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Professor Alisdair MacIntyre and Janet Suzman.
The title chosen by Mark Tully is 'Democracy - is there a better form of government? The Indian experience'. The lecture will be given in the University of York's Physics lecture theatre P/X001 from 8pm on Wednesday 3 May. The lecture is free and open to all, and all are cordially invited and welcome to attend.