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Across several weeks, coercive communications recurred. Initially, reportedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, later from the authorities. In the end, a local artisan asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group resisting a expensive initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," explains Shaikh. "However their intention is to destroy our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and elite residences that dominate the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, like Shaikh, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. But they worry that this initiative – absent of public consultation – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since the late 1800s.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million people living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. The remainder will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the metropolis, threatening to fragment a generations-old social network. Some will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has supported the community for generations.

Commercial activities from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "business area" far from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time resident to reside in this community, the project presents an existential threat. His rickety, three-storey operation makes apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family dwells in the accommodations underneath and laborers and tailors – laborers from other states – also sleep on-site, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside this community, housing costs are typically tenfold costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the government offices nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring continental baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace near a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports local residents.

"This isn't development for our community," says the artisan. "It's a massive property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the developer paid $950m for its controlling interest. A case claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to actively protest the development, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including messages, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by people they allege work for the business conglomerate.

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