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Over an extended period, intimidating phone calls persisted. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many fighting a multimillion-dollar project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," explains the protester. "Yet they want to dismantle our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Dwellings are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the air is saturated with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," states a tea vendor, 56, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as Shaikh, are opposing the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. However they fear that this initiative – lacking resident participation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have been there since the late 1800s.

This involved these excluded, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose output is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly a million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be able for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the distant periphery of the city, threatening to divide a generations-old community. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to stay in Dharavi will be provided units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained the community for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a workshop owner and multi-generational inhabitant to call home the slum, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, multi-level workshop produces apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, fashionable garments – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the spaces downstairs and employees and garment workers – workers from other states – reside there, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, housing costs are frequently 10 times more expensive for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows a very different perspective. Fashionable inhabitants mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, acquiring international baguettes and croissants and having coffee on an outdoor area near a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for our community," says the protester. "It represents a huge land development that will price people out for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Although the state government calls it a joint project, the corporation contributed a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings alleging that the project was improperly granted to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the project, local opponents assert they have been faced an extended period of pressure and threats – comprising messages, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they allege are associated with the developer.

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