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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls continued. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, later from the authorities. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group resisting a multimillion-dollar initiative where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "But they want to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Dwellings are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or water management and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

But others, such as this protester, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need financial support and improvement. However they fear that this initiative – without resident participation – might turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between one million dollars and $2m per year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer zone, less than 50% will be able for alternative accommodation in the development, which is expected to take a significant period to complete. Others will be relocated to wastelands and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a historic neighborhood. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has supported this area for many years.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" far from homes.

Existential Threat

For those such as this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to call home this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-storey facility creates leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Household members resides in the rooms downstairs and employees and garment workers – migrants from north India – also sleep on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly as high for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan shows an alternative perspective. Well-groomed people gather on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. It is a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't progress for us," explains the protester. "It represents an enormous land development that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities describes it as a partnership, the corporation paid $950m for its 80% stake. A case stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the developer is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – comprising communications, clear intimidation and insinuations that opposing the project was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

Included in these alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c