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Across several weeks, threatening messages continued. Initially, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, a local artisan states he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the world," explains Shaikh. "However their intention is to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with two toilets is an aspirational dream realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, 56, who moved from southern India in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

But others, including Shaikh, are opposing the redevelopment.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. But they are concerned that this project – without resident participation – might transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these shunned, relocated individuals who established the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose production is valued at between one million dollars and a substantial sum a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly 1 million people living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer zone, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is projected to take seven years to finish. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially divide a generations-old community. A portion will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a major break from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has sustained this area for many years.

Commercial activities from garment work to pottery and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and long-time inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, multi-level operation creates apparel – sharp blazers, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in premium stores in south Mumbai and abroad.

Household members lives in the spaces underneath and employees and tailors – workers from different regions – live in the same building, allowing him to afford their labour. Beyond this community, housing costs are often 10 times costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the official facilities in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts an alternative outlook. Well-groomed residents gather on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style baguettes and pastries and having coffee on an outdoor area near a coffee shop and treat station. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that sustains local residents.

"This represents no development for us," explains the protester. "It represents a huge land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as the state government calls it a joint project, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A lawsuit alleging that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members state they have been experienced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – involving communications, clear intimidation and implications that opposing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim represent the business conglomerate.

Among those suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c