Veteran BBC correspondent Mark Tully, known to millions as the broadcaster’s “voice of India” for covering defining moments across the subcontinent, died in New Delhi on Sunday aged 90, the BBC said.

Born in India in 1935 under British India, he made the country his home and his career, becoming arguably the best-known foreign correspondent in the country. “Kolkata-born Tully reported on some of the most defining moments in the region’s history,” and Indian minister said.

“Sir Mark opened India to the world through his reporting, bringing the vibrancy and diversity of the country to audiences in the UK and around the world,” BBC News interim chief Jonathan Munro said in a statement.

Tully studied theology at Cambridge University before joining a seminary. But he returned to India in 1965, joining the BBC in New Delhi as an office administrator. After a brief stint in London at the BBC’s Hindi and World Service, he was appointed the BBC correspondent in New Delhi in 1971.