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Across several weeks, threatening messages persisted. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of the slum is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "But they want to eradicate our way of life and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the neighborhood. Homes are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

However, some, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. But they worry that this project – absent of public consultation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since generations ago.

This involved these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is worth between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately one million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the project, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to finish. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of the metropolis, potentially fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Some will be denied housing at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be provided apartments in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported this area for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "commercial zone" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a workshop owner and multi-generational of his family to live in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level workshop makes apparel – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

His family dwells in the spaces downstairs and laborers and sewers – workers from north India – also sleep there, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond the slum, accommodation prices are often significantly costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the government offices close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project shows a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants gather on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This is not development for our community," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the corporate group. Headed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

While administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the project was questionably assigned to the developer is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, direct threats and implications that speaking against the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they allege represent the corporate group.

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