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Across several weeks, threatening phone calls continued. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from the authorities. In the end, a local artisan states he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is exceptional in the globe," explains the protester. "But their intention is to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Residences are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and apartments with two toilets is an aspirational dream come true.

"There's no proper healthcare, roads or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The only way is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, including Shaikh, are opposing the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they fear that this plan – lacking resident participation – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between $1m and two million dollars per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly 1 million residents living in the packed sprawling area, less than 50% will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. Others will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially break up a generations-old social network. Some will not get housing at all.

Those allowed to stay in the area will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a major break from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be moved to a designated "business area" separated from homes.

Existential Threat

For those such as this protester, a workshop owner and long-time inhabitant to reside in the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-storey facility makes garments – sharp blazers, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family dwells in the spaces below and his workers and tailors – laborers from other states – reside in the same building, permitting him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are frequently significantly as high for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows a contrasting vision for the future. Fashionable inhabitants gather on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style bread and pastries and having coffee on a terrace near a restaurant and treat station. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no improvement for our community," states the protester. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While local authorities describes it as a joint project, the corporation paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to publicly resist the project, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by individuals they allege work for the developer.

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