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For months, coercive communications recurred. Initially, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, and then from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a high-value initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is unparalleled in the world," states Shaikh. "However their intention is to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that overshadow the area. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the air is saturated with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for children to play," states a tea vendor, 56, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this plan – absent of community input – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who built up the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between a significant amount and a substantial sum annually, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million residents living in the packed sprawling area, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is expected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to break up a historic community. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be provided units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the evolved, communal way of living and working that has supported this area for generations.

Commercial activities from tailoring to pottery and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of this protester, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to live in this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His informal, three-storey workshop makes leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family dwells in the spaces below and employees and sewers – workers from different regions – live in the same building, enabling him to manage costs. Beyond the slum, Mumbai rents are often significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities close by, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants gather on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, buying international bread and croissants and socializing on a patio outside a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This is not progress for our community," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge land development that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Although local authorities describes it as a joint project, the developer paid a significant amount for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been faced an extended period of coercion and warning – comprising communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that speaking against the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by individuals they claim represent the developer.

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