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Across several weeks, threatening phone calls continued. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was called to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many opposing a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of the slum is like nowhere else in the planet," states the resident. "But they want to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, 56, who relocated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, including Shaikh, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. However they worry that this plan – lacking resident participation – is one that will convert valuable urban land into an elite enclave, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

These were these shunned, migrant workers who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and business activity, whose production is valued at between one million dollars and $2m a year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million inhabitants living in the dense 220-hectare zone, a minority will be eligible for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, risking fragment a historic social network. Some will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to call home this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey workshop produces leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – marketed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Household members resides in the spaces underneath and his workers and sewers – workers from other states – live in the same building, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are typically tenfold as high for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting outlook. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on cycles and electric vehicles, purchasing western-style bread and pastries and having coffee on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not progress for residents," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies describes it as a partnership, the corporation contributed $950m for its controlling interest. A lawsuit alleging that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by individuals they assert represent the developer.

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