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For months, coercive messages persisted. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a expensive initiative where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the globe," says Shaikh. "However the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

However, some, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this plan – without resident participation – is one that will convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, evicting the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have been there since generations ago.

This involved these shunned, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and commercial output, whose output is estimated at between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million inhabitants living in the dense 220-hectare zone, a minority will be qualified for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and salt plains on the distant periphery of the city, potentially divide a long-established neighborhood. Some will not get homes at all.

Residents permitted to stay in Dharavi will be provided apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the organic, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to reduce in scale and be relocated to an allocated "industrial sector" far from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational of his family to call home Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, multi-level facility makes leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Relatives lives in the rooms underneath and employees and sewers – laborers from other states – reside there, allowing him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, Mumbai rents are often 10 times as high for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the government offices nearby, a visual representation of the Dharavi project illustrates a very different outlook. Fashionable inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, buying international bread and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This represents no improvement for us," says Shaikh. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities labels it a partnership, the corporation paid $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to actively protest the development, local opponents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, clear intimidation and suggestions that opposing the development was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they assert represent the corporate group.

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