Sir Mark Tully: A true foreign friend who stood by Bangladesh in 1971

In 1971, during Bangladesh's Liberation War, many foreigners from around the world stood by us like true friends. They shared in our pain and suffering and dreamed of an independent Bangladesh. One such friend was Mark Tully of Britain.

Mark's mother was born in Bangladesh. Even before the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, his maternal great-grandfather came to the Indian subcontinent. He was involved in the opium trade and worked as an opium agent in eastern Uttar Pradesh. During the terrifying days of the Sepoy Mutiny, when every Englishman became a target of the sepoys and Indian revolutionaries, he boarded a boat and moved to Calcutta, which he considered safer. 

Mark's maternal grandfather was a trader and was involved in the jute business. As a result, he had to choose the region of the "golden fibre" of that time. That is why eastern Bengal was the best option — and it was here that Mark's mother was born.

Mark's parents first met in Calcutta, and his father was also a businessman. Mark was born in Tollygunge in 1935. He grew up as one of six children, and although he was raised in Calcutta, his childhood was a very British one. From a very early age, his family taught him that he was not Indian but British.

Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, he remained under the strict control and supervision of a British nanny. For copying a word he had heard from the Indian driver, the nanny even struck him on the head with a slipper. English families who could not afford a fully British nanny had to employ Indian or Anglo-Indian nannies for their children.

However, the control of Mark's British nanny was so strict that she did not allow him or the other children in his family to mix with children raised by such nannies.

Alongside India's caste system and social discrimination, another form of hierarchy existed in Calcutta. Members of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) were regarded as Brahmins; Indian army officers were seen as Rajputs, the warrior class; and my businessman father was, in their eyes, a Vaishya. To the high-nosed ICS officers and the military elite, he was nothing more than a petty trader.

"My friends in India are almost all Indian. Both my daughter's husband and my son's wife are Indian. I know one Indian language. I could have learned it better if Indians spoke to me in Hindi when they met me," Tully told BBC in a 2013 interview. 

They spoke English so that he would not have difficulty understanding, and as a result, there was no real practice. From the very beginning, there was the strict watch of a European nanny to ensure that he did not pick up Hindi words. English was the only language considered acceptable for him.

At that time, the rule for British families in India was that once children reached school age, they had to be sent to England. But the Second World War was underway, and bombs were falling on London. So Mark was sent to Darjeeling for his primary education. 

"Those were very happy days for me. I liked the place very much — it was close to nature. No one was watching me all the time. The headmaster was very liberal. I could wander freely around the market."

By this time, his father got a job in Manchester, and Mark had to spend the rest of his childhood at a boarding school in Britain. India slowly slipped out of sight. By then, the jute business in India had also come to an end. That India no longer gave him any reason to return.

He went back to Britain at the age of ten and studied at Marlborough College and later at Trinity College, Cambridge. He sincerely decided to become a priest. With this goal in mind, he began studying theology and history at Cambridge University. However, the Archbishop doubted whether the young man would be able to remain celibate and rejected him. Mark felt hurt but admitted his decision.

Journalism eventually became his destiny

After working for four years at a private organisation, he joined BBC — but not as a journalist. He started in the administrative department as a personnel manager. Becoming a journalist had never crossed his mind at that stage.

The following year, in 1965, he was transferred to BBC's Delhi bureau as a junior administrative assistant. He returned to the place of his birth, full of memories, even though a sense of distance and dislike towards it had been planted in him earlier. But that feeling did not last.

Mark felt that returning to India was destiny, "I was meant to return to India, and it happened." 

The next year, he was promoted by headquarters and made a BBC news correspondent. Although his office was in Delhi, he was responsible for covering the whole of South Asia — India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. At that time, Bangladesh was still a part of Pakistan.

In 1975, during Indira Gandhi's Emergency, Mark, along with 40 other foreign correspondents, was expelled from India. Of the 19 months of the Emergency, he spent 18 months outside the country. When the Emergency was withdrawn, he returned to Delhi as the BBC's bureau chief.

In 1994, he resigned following a dispute with BBC Director-General John Birt. He said that John Birt ran the BBC through intimidation or flattery. In 2002, Britain awarded him a knighthood—Sir Mark.

After leaving radio, he remained associated with BBC Television for a long time. Covering Bangladesh in 1971 was one of the most memorable experiences of his life, "It brought me recognition and respect."

In India, he came to be known as the 'voice of truth.' When Mark was born in Tollygunge, there was no system for issuing birth certificates, as Tollygunge lay outside the Calcutta Corporation at the time. At the age of 78, he obtained a birth certificate and used it to acquire Overseas Citizenship of India.

Mark Tully is now over 85. Today, he is better known as a writer. From Indira Gandhi onwards, he has interviewed every Indian prime minister. His store of memories is vast. Because of his writing style, Hindi writers often call him the 'English Premchand.' While reporting on the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Hindu extremists even plotted to kill him.

BBC is regarded as the most credible news source, while many people do not trust government-owned media. Mark travelled from one end to the other in search of authentic news. Finding the truth became an adventure that gave him satisfaction.

If anyone can present the clearest picture of what happened in Bangladesh in 1971, it is BBC in London. In besieged Bangladesh, listening to BBC morning and evening felt like moving one step closer to victory. Mark was one of the BBC's leading figures.

In 1971, almost every day, in one way or another, Mark was there — commenting on the situation in Pakistan, sending reports from East Pakistan to the British press, and editing reports on Bangladesh.

For those whose memories of 1971 are still vivid, tuning in to BBC radio and hearing Mark's name made them more alert — determined that not a single word would go unheard. This became part of their daily routine, twice a day. Among friends in the media during 1971, Mark's name was the most frequently mentioned.

After the killings of March 1971, he repeatedly stated that the two wings of Pakistan could no longer coexist as a single country. The language of his reports and analyses reminds us that he was, in many ways, one of the allies of the Mukti Bahini in Bangladesh's Liberation War.

Many of the best reports on Bangladesh's independence struggle, as well as India's major events and disasters, were produced by him. One of Mark's greatest contributions has been the humanisation of news reporting.

Bangladesh has honoured him nationally. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, while Britain conferred upon him the Order of the British Empire and a knighthood. 

Among the books he wrote are 'No Full Stops in India', 'Non-Stop India', 'India in Slow Motion', 'The Heart of India', 'Divide and Quit', 'Last Children of the Raj', 'From Ray to Rajib: 40 years of Indian independence'; 'Four Faces: A Journey in Search of Jesus the Divine, the Jew, the Rebel, the Sage', 'Beyond Purdah', 'India's Unending Journey: Finding Balance in a Time of Change', 'Upcountry Tales', 'Ram Chander's Story', and 'The Lives of Jesus' (BBC Books).

He also wrote 'Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle' about Satish Jacob. His fiction Hindutva, Sex and Adventure made him somewhat controversial.

Disclaimer: Aged 90, Mark Tully passed away at a private hospital in New Delhi on Sunday (25 January). This article was written before his death.