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Across several weeks, threatening messages persisted. Initially, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

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

"The distinctive community of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," says Shaikh. "Yet their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and residences with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"We don't have proper healthcare, paved pathways or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," states A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The only way is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are fighting against the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they fear that this project – without public consultation – is one that will transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have lived there since generations ago.

This involved these shunned, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million residents living in the crowded sprawling zone, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is projected to take a significant period to complete. Others will be relocated to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a long-established neighborhood. Some will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in the area will be given units in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained this area for generations.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to a designated "commercial zone" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and long-time inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor workshop creates leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family dwells in the accommodations underneath and his workers and garment workers – laborers from other states – live there, allowing him to manage costs. Outside the slum, housing costs are frequently tenfold as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on cycles and electric vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for residents," explains the protester. "It represents a massive land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

While the state government calls it a joint project, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the project was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – including communications, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they allege work for the corporate group.

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