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Over an extended period, intimidating messages continued. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is unparalleled in the planet," states Shaikh. "But they want to eradicate our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the area. Homes are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is permeated by the suffocating smell of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and there's nowhere for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, such as Shaikh, are resisting the project.

All recognize that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need investment and development. However they worry that this plan – absent of public consultation – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since the late 1800s.

This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is worth between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly one million people living in the dense sprawling area, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, threatening to divide a historic social network. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be given units in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has supported the community for generations.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to reside in this community, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey facility creates garments – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members dwells in the rooms underneath and laborers and garment workers – migrants from different regions – live in the same building, permitting him to manage costs. Outside this community, housing costs are typically significantly costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows a very different outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style baked goods and pastries and socializing on a patio outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the affordable idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This is not improvement for us," says the artisan. "This constitutes a huge land development that will price people out for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it denies.

While local authorities describes it as a joint project, the business group paid a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the initiative was improperly granted to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – including communications, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they assert work for the business conglomerate.

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