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For months, intimidating messages continued. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the authorities. Finally, one resident states he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is part of a group resisting 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 razed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the planet," states the protester. "However the plan aims to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Homes are constructed informally and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the environment is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or water management and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

However, some, including this protester, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they worry that this project – without public consultation – might turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

This involved these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is worth between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million inhabitants living in the dense sprawling area, a minority will be able for new homes in the development, which is projected to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, risking fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Some will not get residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained this area for so long.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and material recovery are projected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a specific "business area" distant from homes.

Existential Threat

For those such as the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time resident to call home this community, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey operation produces apparel – sharp blazers, luxury coats, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

Household members dwells in the spaces underneath and employees and tailors – workers from different regions – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, Mumbai rents are frequently tenfold as high for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed people mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring international bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for residents," says Shaikh. "It represents a massive real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

While the state government calls it a joint project, the developer paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents assert they have been subjected to an extended period of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that speaking against the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim represent the business conglomerate.

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