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Over an extended period, intimidating communications persisted. Originally, reportedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from law enforcement directly. In the end, one resident asserts he was called to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," states the resident. "However they want to dismantle our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the settlement. Residences are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring financial support and improvement. But they fear that this project – absent of public consultation – might convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these shunned, relocated individuals who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly 1 million residents living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and salt plains on the far outskirts of the city, threatening to break up a long-established social network. A portion will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained the community for so long.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be moved to a designated "business area" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to reside in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-storey operation makes apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations below and laborers and tailors – workers from different regions – also sleep on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Outside this community, housing costs are frequently tenfold costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the official facilities close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows a contrasting perspective. Well-groomed people move around on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style baguettes and pastries and enlisting beverages on a terrace outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't improvement for residents," says the protester. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the business group has faced accusations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Although the state government describes it as a partnership, the corporation contributed $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded 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 a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – including phone calls, clear intimidation and implications that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they allege represent the corporate group.

Included in these suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c