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For months, coercive communications persisted. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is exceptional in the globe," says the protester. "But their intention is to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that overshadow the area. Homes are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the air is saturated with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with two toilets is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for children to play," states a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, including this protester, are fighting against the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they worry that this initiative – absent of public consultation – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, displaced people who developed the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about 1 million residents living in the crowded sprawling area, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, risking divide a generations-old social network. Some will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be provided units in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, communal way of living and working that has maintained this area for many years.

Businesses from garment work to clay work and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to an allocated "business area" far from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and third generation of his family to call home this community, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-storey operation makes garments – formal jackets, suede trenches, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family lives in the spaces downstairs and his workers and tailors – workers from different regions – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, housing costs are frequently 10 times as high for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan illustrates an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed people move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, buying western-style baguettes and croissants and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for us," says Shaikh. "It's an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

While local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit alleging that the project was improperly granted to the developer is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the project, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – including messages, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

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