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Over an extended period, coercive communications persisted. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is one of many resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces razed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the globe," states the resident. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the area. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the air is saturated with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with two toilets is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, like the leather artisan, are resisting the plan.

All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they fear that this project – absent of resident participation – might transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, evicting the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these marginalized, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately one million residents living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is projected to take seven years to complete. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the metropolis, potentially break up a long-established neighborhood. Some will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be provided units in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time inhabitant to call home the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level workshop makes garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the rooms underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from different regions – live on-site, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from this community, housing costs are frequently 10 times more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed residents mill about on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying continental bread and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This represents no improvement for our community," explains the protester. "It's an enormous land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

While the state government describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group paid a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings alleging that the project was improperly granted to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the development, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they claim are associated with the developer.

Among those suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c