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Across several weeks, coercive phone calls recurred. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from the police themselves. In the end, one resident states he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," states Shaikh. "However their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the neighborhood. Residences are built haphazardly and typically missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, 56, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

However, some, like Shaikh, are resisting the project.

None deny that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they are concerned that this project – without resident participation – is one that will turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these excluded, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between a significant amount and $2m a year, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare zone, a minority will be able for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to divide a long-established community. Certain individuals will not get homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has sustained this area for many years.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from residential areas.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a leather artisan and long-time of his family to reside in Dharavi, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor workshop creates leather coats – tailored coats, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations downstairs and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – also sleep there, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often 10 times costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed people mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, buying continental baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This depicts a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that sustains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no development for us," explains the protester. "It represents a massive real estate deal that will price people out for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Although the state government describes it as a partnership, the business group invested a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the project was improperly granted to the business group is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, explicit warnings and implications that speaking against the initiative was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they claim represent the corporate group.

Among those alleged to have making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c