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Sir Mark Tully obituary: BBC's long-serving India voice who has died aged 90
Summary
Sir Mark Tully, the BBC journalist long associated with reporting from India, has died aged 90. He was the BBC's Delhi bureau chief for more than two decades and later presented Radio 4's Something Understood.
Content
Sir Mark Tully, the BBC journalist long associated with reporting from India, has died aged 90. He served as the BBC's Delhi bureau chief from 1972 to 1993 and then as South Asia correspondent for a further year. His broadcasts and writing covered major events in the region and made him widely recognised across the subcontinent. After leaving regular reporting he presented the Radio 4 programme Something Understood from 1995 to 2019.
Key facts:
- Born in Kolkata and educated in the UK at Twyford, Marlborough and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
- Joined the BBC in India in 1965, became Delhi bureau chief in 1972 and served as South Asia correspondent after 1993.
- Reported on major events including the Bhopal disaster, the 1984 Golden Temple siege (Operation Blue Star) and the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
- Wrote several books, including Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle (1985), and presented television and radio series such as The Lives of Jesus and Something Understood.
- Knighted in 2002 and awarded India's Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan; he resigned from the BBC after a dispute over his contract in 1993.
Summary:
Tully's death marks the passing of a widely recognised correspondent whose reporting and later radio work reached large audiences in the UK and the Indian subcontinent. Undetermined at this time.
