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For months, coercive communications continued. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – will be bulldozed and modernized by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the world," explains the protester. "But the plan aims to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Homes are assembled randomly and typically lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and residences with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

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

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. But they worry that this initiative – without community input – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, displaced people who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars a year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million residents living in the dense 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking fragment a historic neighborhood. Some will not get homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Businesses from garment work to clay work and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to an allocated "business area" distant from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time resident to live in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor workshop produces leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – distributed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family dwells in the accommodations underneath and employees and tailors – migrants from different regions – reside on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are often 10 times costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows a contrasting outlook. Fashionable residents mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style baked goods and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This isn't progress for residents," says Shaikh. "It's a massive land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Even as the state government labels it a partnership, the business group paid a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the business group is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving communications, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they claim work for the developer.

Among those accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c