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Over an extended period, coercive messages continued. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from law enforcement directly. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of the slum is unparalleled in the world," says the resident. "Yet they want to dismantle our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and often without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains 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."

Resident Opposition

However, some, including Shaikh, are resisting the plan.

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. However they fear that this project – without public consultation – is one that will transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the marginalized, immigrant populations who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these marginalized, relocated individuals who developed the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose production is worth between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million residents living in the packed sprawling neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. The remainder will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to divide a generations-old community. Some will not get residences at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be given units in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to shrink in number and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of the leather artisan, a workshop owner and long-time resident to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-storey facility makes leather coats – tailored coats, luxury coats, decorated jackets – marketed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family lives in the accommodations underneath and his workers and garment workers – migrants from other states – also sleep there, enabling him to sustain operations. Away from this community, accommodation prices are typically 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the government offices nearby, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed inhabitants gather on cycles and e-vehicles, acquiring western-style baked goods and croissants and socializing on a patio outside a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports local residents.

"This isn't progress for us," says the protester. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the business conglomerate. Managed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the business group has been subject to claims of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities calls it a partnership, the corporation invested nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to vocally oppose the development, local opponents state they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the development was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they claim are associated with the business conglomerate.

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