RECONSIDERING DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES IN A FRAGILE ZONE : ON THE POSSIBILITIESAND LIMITS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT ANDDEMOCRACY IN DARJEELING HILLS, INDIA

Darjeeling Hills, a colonial creation, currently composed of two Hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, has a complex and variegated history evolved through multiple forms of administrative experiments since the colonial times. The region, forming a part of the geopolitically highly sensitive Siliguri corridor sandwiched in four international borders, is characterized by multiple forms of conflicts- social, political, economic, and ecological, and dwells on a long pending dream of peace through resolution of such conflicts by way of accommodation of identity within the constitutional framework and multicultural initiatives. However, mechanisms to this end especially since the Darjeeling Accord (1988) have been half-baked and tentative, and hence, ensures potentialities of intermittent, yet deep and violent tensions, even in the aftermath of conflict resolutions, however benign and limited, keeping the region perennially fragile. In this backdrop, the present paper argues for a centrally managed administrative unit for the region in the form of a Union Territory, possibly more efficiently and amicably addressing these issues and ensuring peace, tranquility, and development, simultaneously addressing the security and strategic needs of the State of India, amidst recent developments in India's northeastern neighbourhood.