The Darjeeling Initiative

The Darjeeling Initiative is a group of like-minded locals, mostly in their youth, from diverse backgrounds, coming together with the aim to make a positive impact on the socio-economy of the Darjeeling Hills. The group includes development workers, businessmen, hotel and restaurant owners, tour operators, lawyers, doctors, professionals, college students and unemployed youth. The majority of this group consists of people who lost a major part of their teenage and youth on account of the violent separate statehood Gorkhaland agitation that rocked Darjeeling in the late 1980s. Today, almost 20 years later, the group believes it’s time to move on, by pro-actively working towards a better Darjeeling Hills.

The Darjeeling Initiative very strongly believes that the issues facing Darjeeling Hills can be dealt with at the citizen’s level by partnering with the government. With the pro-active involvement of the local administrative bodies the group is working on building a civil society movement where the local citizens, government and non-government agencies and business establishments come together to work towards a better society.

The Darjeeling Initiative is actively involved in a wide range of activities in the rural and urban areas of the Darjeeling Hills essentially centred upon pro-active community mobilisation and include among others, livelihood issues, disaster preparedness, drug abuse and HIV-AIDS awareness, community celebrations and heritage awareness.

The most significant of its community mobilisation exercises however, has been the central role played by the Darjeeling Initiative in the organisation of the 10 day Darjeeling Carnival, which made its spectacular debut run in November 2003.

The Darjeeling Carnival has gone from strength to strength over the years and has now strongly established itself as the most significant cultural event in the Eastern Himalayan Region and an important annual event in the nation’s calendar, for its celebration of the unique and exotic multi-culture of the mountain people, to spread their message of innate cheer in the present strife-torn world.The Darjeeling Carnival, with the high quality portrayal of the rich musical and cultural heritage of Darjeeling Hills as its central theme, is today one of the biggest community celebrations in Darjeeling’s history, demonstrating the potentials and possibilities of collective and pro-active community motivation and mobilisation in making the Darjeeling Hills a better place for all.