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Across several weeks, coercive phone calls recurred. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces demolished and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is exceptional in the world," explains the protester. "Yet they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, including this protester, are opposing the plan.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they worry that this project – lacking resident participation – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and business activity, whose output is worth between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for replacement housing in the development, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to finish. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, potentially divide a generations-old community. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be allocated units in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has sustained this area for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and material recovery are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and long-time resident to live in the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level facility produces apparel – tailored coats, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and overseas.

His family resides in the rooms below and laborers and garment workers – laborers from other states – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are frequently tenfold as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows a contrasting vision for the future. Well-groomed people move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style bread and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," says the artisan. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities calls it a joint project, the business group paid a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to an extended period of coercion and warning – including messages, clear intimidation and implications that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by people they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

Among those suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c