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Over an extended period, coercive communications recurred. At first, allegedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a expensive project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is unparalleled in the world," explains the protester. "However their intention is to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the area. Homes are assembled randomly and typically lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of high-end towers, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

However, some, like Shaikh, are opposing the project.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this project – lacking resident participation – might transform premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly a million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to divide a historic community. Some will not get homes at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be given units in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for generations.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For those such as this protester, a workshop owner and third generation inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level operation produces apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

His family resides in the rooms downstairs and laborers and tailors – workers from north India – live on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Away from the slum, housing costs are typically tenfold costlier for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts a very different outlook. Fashionable residents move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying western-style baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace outside a coffee shop and treat station. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't improvement for our community," explains the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While local authorities labels it a joint project, the business group invested $950m for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the project was questionably assigned to the developer is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members claim they have been faced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – including phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the initiative was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert represent the corporate group.

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