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Over an extended period, threatening phone calls persisted. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many opposing a expensive redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be razed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," states the protester. "But the plan aims to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and often lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is permeated by the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

However, some, like this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. However they fear that this project – absent of public consultation – might turn valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer zone, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of the metropolis, risking break up a long-established social network. Some will receive no housing at all.

People eligible to remain in the neighborhood will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the evolved, shared lifestyle of living and working that has supported the community for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" distant from homes.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to reside in Dharavi, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level workshop produces apparel – formal jackets, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family resides in the accommodations below and his workers and sewers – workers from different regions – live in the same building, enabling him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are frequently tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying continental baguettes and pastries and having coffee on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. It is a world away from the affordable idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no improvement for our community," says the artisan. "It's a massive land development that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies describes it as a joint project, the business group invested $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit alleging that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the initiative was comparable with opposing national interests – by individuals they assert represent the developer.

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