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Across several weeks, coercive messages recurred. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was summoned to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," explains Shaikh. "However their intention is to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the area. Dwellings are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the air is filled with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for children to play," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, like this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. But they worry that this initiative – without resident participation – might transform valuable urban land into an elite enclave, forcing out the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and a substantial sum annually, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly a million people living in the dense 220-hectare zone, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be transferred to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, potentially fragment a historic neighborhood. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be given flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, communal way of living and working that has sustained the community for so long.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and recycling are likely to reduce in scale and be transferred to a designated "business area" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as the leather artisan, a craftsman and third generation of his family to reside in this community, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor operation creates garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and overseas.

His family lives in the spaces below and laborers and sewers – laborers from different regions – reside on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, Mumbai rents are often tenfold as high for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows a very different perspective. Slickly dressed residents mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying international baguettes and pastries and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. This represents a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for our community," says the protester. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a supporter of the national leader – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents assert they have been experienced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – involving phone calls, direct threats and implications that criticizing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by figures they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

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