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Across several weeks, threatening phone calls continued. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the planet," states the protester. "However the plan aims to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the settlement. Residences are built haphazardly and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who moved from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

None deny that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. But they worry that this project – without resident participation – might convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these shunned, migrant workers who developed the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the dense sprawling area, less than 50% will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a historic neighborhood. A portion will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to remain in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, communal way of living and working that has supported this area for generations.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and recycling are expected to reduce in scale and be transferred to a specific "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation resident to call home this community, the project presents an existential threat. His informal, three-storey workshop creates apparel – formal jackets, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family lives in the spaces underneath and his workers and garment workers – laborers from other states – also sleep there, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond the slum, accommodation prices are typically 10 times as high for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the government offices close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed residents mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, buying western-style bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for us," states the protester. "It represents a massive property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the corporate group. Headed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Although the state government labels it a joint project, the corporation paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the project, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been experienced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – involving communications, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they assert are associated with the developer.

Included in these suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c