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Over an extended period, coercive communications continued. At first, reportedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was called to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is one of many fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the planet," says the protester. "Yet their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the settlement. Residences are built haphazardly and often lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, neat parks, contemporary malls and apartments with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or water management and we have no places for children to play," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

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

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this plan – lacking public consultation – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the marginalized, migrant communities who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and business activity, whose output is valued at between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is projected to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking divide a generations-old social network. Some will not get housing at all.

People eligible to stay in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained the community for generations.

Industries from garment work to pottery and waste processing are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "commercial zone" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a leather artisan and long-time resident to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor facility makes apparel – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family resides in the accommodations underneath and his workers and garment workers – laborers from different regions – live there, enabling him to afford their labour. Beyond this community, housing costs are often significantly as high for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed people mill about on bicycles and e-vehicles, buying western-style baguettes and pastries and having coffee on an outdoor area outside a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for our community," states the artisan. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the development company. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has faced accusations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

While the state government describes it as a partnership, the corporation paid $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the project was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the project was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they assert are associated with the corporate group.

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