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Over an extended period, coercive communications recurred. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the globe," states Shaikh. "Yet their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for children to play," states a tea vendor, 56, who moved from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, like the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they fear that this project – lacking public consultation – is one that will turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the late 1800s.

These were these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between one million dollars and $2m per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly a million inhabitants living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, less than 50% will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to complete. Others will be transferred to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking break up a generations-old neighborhood. Some will be denied homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be allocated apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a specific "business area" distant from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to reside in Dharavi, the project presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level facility makes garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Household members resides in the rooms downstairs and employees and tailors – workers from north India – also sleep there, permitting him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, Mumbai rents are typically 10 times costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed people gather on cycles and electric vehicles, acquiring western-style baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This represents no progress for our community," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous land development that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and an associate of the government head – the corporation has faced accusations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it denies.

While local authorities labels it a partnership, the business group invested a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents assert they have been faced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – comprising phone calls, direct threats and implications that speaking against the initiative was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they claim work for the business conglomerate.

Included in these accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c