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Across several weeks, intimidating communications recurred. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The culture of the slum is unparalleled in the globe," states Shaikh. "But their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from southern India in that period. "The single option is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, including this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. However they are concerned that this plan – absent of resident participation – is one that will turn premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is worth between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million residents living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to divide a historic neighborhood. A portion will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to stay in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported this area for generations.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" distant from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and third generation resident to reside in this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-storey workshop creates garments – formal jackets, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members lives in the spaces underneath and laborers and tailors – laborers from north India – live in the same building, enabling him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, housing costs are typically 10 times as high for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants gather on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, acquiring international baguettes and croissants and socializing on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no development for our community," says the artisan. "It represents a huge land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Managed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the corporation invested $950m for its controlling interest. A case alleging that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to publicly resist the project, local opponents claim they have been subjected to an extended period of coercion and warning – including communications, explicit warnings and implications that speaking against the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they claim are associated with the corporate group.

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