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For months, coercive communications recurred. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. In the end, one resident asserts he was called to the local precinct and warned explicitly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is among those resisting a high-value project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of the slum is exceptional in the planet," explains Shaikh. "However they want to dismantle our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the settlement. Homes are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or water management and there are no spaces for children to play," states a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

However, some, like the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. But they fear that this plan – absent of community input – is one that will turn premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose production is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum a year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly a million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the project, which is expected to take a significant period to complete. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially fragment a long-established community. Certain individuals will be denied homes at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the neighborhood will be given units in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of living and working that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "business area" far from residential areas.

Existential Threat

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and third generation resident to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His rickety, three-floor operation makes leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family dwells in the accommodations downstairs and employees and garment workers – migrants from north India – live there, allowing him to manage costs. Away from this community, housing costs are typically significantly more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed people move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying continental baked goods and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and treat station. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that supports local residents.

"This is not improvement for our community," says the protester. "This constitutes a huge land development that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

While the state government labels it a partnership, the corporation invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been faced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that opposing the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they assert work for the corporate group.

Part of the group suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c