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Over an extended period, intimidating messages recurred. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, one resident claims he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "But their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of this community sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and residences with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are fighting against the plan.

None deny that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – absent of community input – is one that will turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the late 1800s.

These were these excluded, migrant workers who built up the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million residents living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to complete. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking break up a long-established social network. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.

People eligible to stay in Dharavi will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained the community for generations.

Businesses from tailoring to pottery and recycling are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to call home the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor operation makes garments – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in premium stores in south Mumbai and overseas.

Relatives resides in the accommodations below and laborers and sewers – laborers from different regions – reside in the same building, enabling him to sustain operations. Outside this community, housing costs are typically tenfold costlier for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows a very different outlook. Well-groomed people move around on cycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental bread and breakfast items and having coffee on a patio near a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This isn't improvement for residents," says the artisan. "This constitutes a huge land development that will price people out for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Managed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has encountered allegations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

While local authorities labels it a partnership, the business group invested $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising messages, direct threats and insinuations that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they assert work for the corporate group.

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