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Over an extended period, threatening phone calls continued. Initially, allegedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, subsequently from the authorities. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," says the protester. "But they want to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the air is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is an aspirational dream realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," explains a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

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

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this plan – without public consultation – could potentially convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, evicting the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these shunned, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose economic value is valued at between $1m and $2m annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million residents living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. Additional residents will be moved to wastelands and salt plains on the distant periphery of the city, risking divide a long-established social network. A portion will receive no housing at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be given flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has sustained the community for so long.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "business area" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey facility produces apparel – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – distributed in premium stores in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family dwells in the accommodations underneath and employees and tailors – laborers from north India – also sleep on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are typically significantly as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental bread and pastries and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area near a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that maintains local residents.

"This represents no progress for our community," states the artisan. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a collaborative effort, the corporation paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – including communications, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the initiative was equivalent to opposing national interests – by individuals they allege are associated with the developer.

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