Customer Reviews:
 A different world August 30, 2008
Ex BBC correspondent Mark Tully writes 10 essays, revealing cultural, political and religious practise within India. Reading this book gave me an idea of the vastness of this region of the world and the subject matter is very well chosen.
The idea of this book seems to be to give a flavour of several aspects of indian life and in this it suceeds. The last chapter on Kashmir has had entire books written on it.
Certain themes emerge throughout the book; political corruption and wretched human selfishness are just two. It doesn't seem to taint Tullys affinity for this country of such rich diversity, but by the end I felt very lucky be governed in England.
In summary, reading this book will give a fascinating insight into a unique way of how a huge country has been ruled, but would be described as important rather than uplifting reading.
loving and optimistic December 16, 2002
35 out of 36 found this review helpful
this is a book written with enormous admiration and love for India, with lucid recognition of its problems and shortcomings, but also, encouragingly, with hope and optimism for the future of the country. tackling diverse subjects such as corruption, religious fundamentalism, child labour, the 'IT revolution', Mark Tully maintains a lucid and honest journalism and seeks to go beyond the easy 'colour'piece to bring us a lively and dynamic glimpse into this ever-changing country. It lacks the urgency and inspiration of Naipaul's Indian trilogy, and it can sometimes feel a bit impersonal to the reader used to flamboyant indian literature, but it certainly is journalism at its best and most inspiring.
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