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Over an extended period, coercive phone calls continued. Originally, reportedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," says the protester. "Yet they want to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the air is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – lacking community input – might transform premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have resided there since the late 1800s.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is worth between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare area, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is expected to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking divide a historic neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get housing at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be provided flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to reside in this community, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level operation creates leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

His family lives in the spaces underneath and laborers and sewers – workers from north India – also sleep there, permitting him to sustain operations. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are often significantly as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on bicycles and electric vehicles, purchasing western-style baked goods and pastries and having coffee on an outdoor area outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for residents," states Shaikh. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it denies.

While the state government calls it a partnership, the corporation invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been subjected to an extended period of pressure and threats – comprising communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the development was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

Part of the group alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c