Published in 1991, Mark Tully’s No Full Stops in India will be exactly two decades old today. Given the massive changes the country has gone through over this period, this travelogue offers some incredible insights in a historically important era.
Across the ten essays, Tully writes about his experiences and observations as he moved about the Indian landscape while working as BBC correspondent. He explores the communal conflicts in Ahmedabad, communism in Calcutta, the apparent Sati of Roop Kanwar in Rajastan, the politics of the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, and the televising of Ramayana in Doordarshan, which was perhaps the biggest cultural shift among the people in India. The essays were written around 1990, when India’s economy was undergoing liberation. The aspiring middle class was just emerging. It was a time when India was transitioning into a developing economy. There was a lot of optimism and hope, obviously a time for high nationalistic idealism. Naturally, these ideals run strong through Tully’s essays as well as evident from what one of his interviewees tell him outright, “Maybe you’re an idealist.”
Although extremely insightful in certain major issues in the country such as communalism and the wealth gap, Mark Tully brings a foreigner’s gaze, which has its own perils when a book is marketed as a travelogue. His perspective is generally generous and at other times sympathizing bordering on patronizing, perhaps a remnant of the colonial perspective. The basis of each of the ten essays in the book is Tully striving to show how the Indian elite fueled by progressive ideas from the west are far removed from communities who live in the hinterlands of the country. According to him, westernized ideas have led to divisions in the country making certain sections of the population to have a superiority complex over Indian culture and the rest of the country. This was quite a popular opinion to have in the 1990s and early 2000s, which was easily seen in the Indian pop culture in movies and TV shows.
In his enthusiasm to show India as a resilient and emerging economy in the global politics, Tully glosses over a number aspects that define the Indian society. In India, the consequences of caste, religion, and deeply entrenched patriarchy are highly complex. These complexities are often overlooked in Tully’s critical analysis in the ten essays. The politics of language, caste, religion, and gender are the underpinnings of every issue in India. It seems Tully found it highly inconvenient to directly mark out these important threads that make up the fabric of the Indian society.
Nonetheless, despite its certain shortcomings, we have to laud Tully’s journalistic excellence as he persists in seeking out the right sources for his stories. His reporting is highly perceptive. All in all, No Full Stops in India is a compelling book that gives a glimpse into an India reeling under colonial hangover and yet trying to emerge out of its shadows.
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