It was while reporting from the front line on the Indian side during the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan that Ms Dutt, then in her 20s, first gained recognition as a television journalist (and even inspired a Bollywood movie starring Preity Zinta). She even throws in a scoop or two, which saves the book from becoming a mere rehash of her reportage. Much of what Ms Dutt has written about falls within the realm of issues that are deeply divisive, so the author has taken due care to back her analysis and commentary with years of reportage. Along the way, she weaves in some context - historical and personal - into her observations on gender, terror, Kashmir, war, dynastic politics, class and caste. In 324 pages, divided into seven chapters, Ms Dutt walks the reader through her reporting experiences over the past 20 years in an attempt to trace what she calls "India's fault lines". In her debut book, Barkha Dutt, one of the most well-known faces in Indian journalism, has attempted to put together those pieces - This Unquiet Land is a brave book. Making sense of India, with its vastly diverse socio-political landscape, is no different from solving a jigsaw puzzle with ill-fitting pieces.
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