No Full Stops in India

“… Tully takes us on many journeys, showing us wedding celebrations in a rural village; the memories of a politician whose experiences are those of the rulers of post-war India; the people of the Muslim city of Ahmedabad whose struggles and aspirations are now a microcosm of India. He describes how the new colonialism undermines the efforts of Indians to forge their own systems of education and government.

These are pictures of an India in which the fervour of the largest religious festival in the world, the Kumbh Mela, is paralleled by the glamorized soap-opera dramatization of its greatest religious epic, the Ramayan, on television; a country still divided by communal violence whose principal sufferers, the poor, wish only to live peacefully side by side instead of being the victims of their rulers, who are playing politics with religion; a people divided by the easy lure of wealth promised by Westernization but whose real future lies in greater respect for India’s past, its traditions and beliefs.

No Full Stops in India is brought to life by the people themselves, whom Tully trusts to depict India in all the perplexing variety, described with a sympathy and clarity which have made Mark tully’s name synonymous with reporting on India today.”