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For months, intimidating communications recurred. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – will be demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is exceptional in the planet," states the protester. "However their intention is to eradicate our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or drainage and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

But others, like Shaikh, are opposing the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. However they fear that this initiative – without community input – might transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who developed the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose output is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the metropolis, potentially break up a long-established community. Some will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to continue living in Dharavi will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported this area for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "business area" distant from homes.

Existential Threat

In the case of Shaikh, a leather artisan and long-time resident to reside in this community, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level operation produces garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the spaces downstairs and laborers and tailors – migrants from other states – reside there, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from this community, housing costs are typically significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the government offices close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project illustrates a contrasting vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style bread and pastries and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't progress for our community," explains Shaikh. "It's a massive property transaction that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the development company. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a joint project, the business group contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A case stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, clear intimidation and insinuations that criticizing the development was comparable with speaking against the country – by individuals they assert are associated with the corporate group.

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