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Over an extended period, coercive messages recurred. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is among those opposing a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the globe," says Shaikh. "However the plan aims to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the area. Homes are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

However, some, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. But they fear that this plan – lacking resident participation – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, evicting the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

These were these shunned, migrant workers who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of community resilience and economic productivity, whose economic value is valued at between one million dollars and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about 1 million people living in the crowded sprawling area, a minority will be able for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, risking divide a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will be denied housing at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of living and working that has supported this area for so long.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation inhabitant to live in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-floor facility produces leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the rooms below and his workers and sewers – migrants from other states – live on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Outside this community, Mumbai rents are often 10 times more expensive for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the official facilities nearby, a visual representation of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting perspective. Well-groomed residents move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, acquiring international bread and pastries and having coffee on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This isn't improvement for us," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the development company. Run 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 questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as the state government labels it a partnership, the business group contributed $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members state they have been experienced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and suggestions that criticizing the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they claim represent the corporate group.

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