மார்க் டுலி (பிபிஸி நிருபர்) இந்துத்வ சார்புடன் எழுதிய புத்தகம்

சர் மார்க் டுலி (இவருக்கும் சர் பட்டம் கொடுத்திருக்கிறது பிரிட்டிஷ் அரசு) வெகுகாலம் இந்தியாவில் இருந்ததன் மூலம் இந்துத்வ நிலைப்பாடு எடுத்திருக்கிறார்.

இவர் தற்போது ஒரு புத்தகம் எழுதியிருக்கிறார். அதன் பெயர் இந்தியாவின் முடிவுறாத பயணம் India’s Unending Journey



இதில் செக்குலரிஸ்டுகளை காய்ச்சியிருக்கிறார். இதனால், இவர் இந்துமதத்துக்கு மதம் மாறிவிட்டார் என்றும் , இந்துத்வா சார்புடையவர் என்றும் பலர் இவரை கூறி வருகிறார்கள்.

இங்கிலாந்தில் மிகக்கடுமையான சாதிமுறை இருந்தது. அவர்கள் இந்தியாவில் சாதிமுறை இருக்கிறது என்று குறை சொல்வது அபத்தம் என்று கூறுகிறார்.

கத்தோலிக பாதிரியாருக்கு படிக்க ஆரம்பித்த மார்க் டுலி இன்று இந்துமதத்தினை பாராட்டுபவராக ஆகியிருக்கிறார்.

நன்றி இந்தியன் எக்ஸ்பிரஸ்


Mark’s Gospel

In India’s Unending Journey, Mark Tully searches for, finds and delights in India’s pluralism. Idealistic? Maybe. Toeing a soft Hindutva line? Tully laughs it off

Charmy Harikrishnan

There is something endearing about Sir Mark Tully as he sits across you, cupping a warm Darjeeling in his hands, his eyes squinting in delight as he talks of market and Marx, G-string and God. There is something slightly disconcerting about Tully’s new book, India’s Unending Journey: Finding Balance in a Time of Change (Rider Books), where he searches for and finds pluralism in India. In spite of the fall of Babri Masjid 15 years ago and in spite of the Gujarat riots five years ago.

“In this book, I was applying what I think I’ve learned from India,” says Tully. “It might be called a Hindutva book, an anti-market narrative. I’ll be bashed by the left and the right,” he chuckles. Here, don’t look for Tully sahib, the BBC’s chief of bureau, Delhi, who reported the Operation Blue Star, the Bhopal tragedy and the razing of the Babri Masjid. This is Tully, 72, in semi-retirement, on a personal journey from his school days in Marlborough to Cambridge, Puri and Varanasi.

At Marlborough College, London, everything was black or white, the class was divided into fast and slow stream, and Tully was dumped among the sluggish goats. He moved from the classroom to confess sins at the chapel where the Church had the last word. The book is his rebellion: against the certainties of meritocracy, religion and the good tidings that globalisation will bring.

Instead of globalisation, Tully is championing Indianisation, not necessarily because the Marlborough boy, who was told that sex outside marriage was sin, had a revelation in Khajuraho. Actually, the epiphany about India’s pluralism happened one Christmas night in Delhi. The midnight Mass, he noticed, was attended by Sikhs and Hindus unlike in London where his Catholic friends would refuse to enter an Anglican church.

Forty-two years later, Tully is still convinced that India has the right mix of the sacred and the sensuous. And the Upanishads are the fountainhead of India’s pluralism. But the texts were not accessible to the vast majority of Hindus, who were systematically incarcerated in the caste system. How inclusive is Hinduism when temples conduct purification ceremonies if a non-Hindu happens to enter the precincts? “I agree that there has not been perfect plurality in India,” he says. “But then all societies had gradations—England had a rigid class system— and all religions had some sort of obscurantism. But then there have been tremendous changes in India.”

Is he toeing a soft Hindutva line? Tully laughs, “I’m not. Actually, in my book I’m arguing against secularists who see things only in black and white, who will brand you as Hindutva if you mention the Vedas.”

Tully is religious and, despite his admiration for Hinduism, very much an Anglican who loves the liturgy. For the past 10 years, he has been broadcasting the religious programme Something Understood on Channel Four. “There is a core in me that will be deeply disturbed if I lose my religion,” he says. In fact, after Cambridge, he went to Lincoln Theosophical College to become a priest. The brief monastic life ended when the evenings were spent in the pub instead of the pulpit. “I’m not confident that St Peter will let me past the pearly gates,” he says.