Book Review [59] : The Meadow

'The Meadow' by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott is a great work of investigative journalism, but i am not sure whether everything written or found by these guys is factually correct or its a part of some sinister propaganda. I read this book (more than 480 pages) during my pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Trimbakeshwar and in the end i lost almost complete interest in the book but i managed to finish the book somehow.

The central theme of this book revolves around the kidnapping of 6 foreign tourists (2 Americans, 1 Germans, 2 British, 1 Norwegian) from the Pahalgam region on 4th July 1995, few days later one hostage escaped, later one hostage was beheaded (perhaps one of the earliest incidents of subheading in Kashmir) while the remaining 4 hostages have been lost in the valleys/streams/glaciers of Kashmir, perhaps forever. Adrian and Cathy constructs the lives of the hostages in great detail but these guys conspicuously ignore the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the separatists and terrorists. This book gives a very detailed description of various geographic features of Kashmir valley and in the end it is able to paint the entire Indian Army, political establishment and senior bureaucrats in black, making them more than partly responsible for the mess of Kashmir. It also exposes the brutal truth that there is absolutely no coordination among local police, military and spy agencies of India. The current controversy over the arrest of a terrorist by Delhi Police (in late March 2013) only proves this.  May be these journalists want to lighten the burden of Pakistan bashing (in Deception) by making India look bad in this book. It claims that India pays/bribes terrorists to fight against other terrorists and uses the tactic of Divide and Conquer masterfully and it belittles the role played by Pakistani establishment in this dirty game. Overall a good read but beware it has too much of India bashing in it.  
Recommended (7/10).