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For months, intimidating messages recurred. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a expensive project where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," states Shaikh. "But they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Residences are constructed informally and often lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for children to play," explains a tea vendor, 56, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

But others, like Shaikh, are opposing the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this plan – absent of community input – could potentially turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the marginalized, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between a significant amount and a substantial sum a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare zone, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take seven years to complete. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a generations-old social network. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in Dharavi will be provided units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and material recovery are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational of his family to call home this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level facility makes garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Household members dwells in the accommodations downstairs and laborers and tailors – workers from north India – live on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants mill about on cycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style baguettes and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not improvement for residents," states Shaikh. "This constitutes a massive land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the conglomerate has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Although local authorities labels it a collaborative effort, the business group invested a significant amount for its controlling interest. A case alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – comprising communications, clear intimidation and insinuations that opposing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim work for the corporate group.

Included in these alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c