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Across several weeks, coercive communications recurred. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many fighting a expensive project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be bulldozed and modernized by a large business group.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says the resident. "However the plan aims to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that overshadow the area. Homes are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have proper healthcare, paved pathways or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, like this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

All recognize that this community, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. Yet they worry that this initiative – without resident participation – could potentially transform valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these shunned, relocated individuals who built up the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose output is worth between $1m and $2m per year, making it a major informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the packed sprawling area, fewer than half will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, threatening to divide a long-established social network. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.

People eligible to remain in the neighborhood will be given flats in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the natural, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has sustained Dharavi for generations.

Industries from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "business area" separated from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to live in Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor workshop creates leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

Relatives lives in the spaces underneath and his workers and tailors – workers from different regions – reside on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Away from this community, accommodation prices are frequently significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

In the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts a very different outlook. Well-groomed residents mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside a restaurant and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This is not development for residents," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has faced accusations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it denies.

Even as the state government describes it as a joint project, the corporation paid $950m for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been experienced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving communications, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the initiative was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by individuals they assert are associated with the corporate group.

Among those suspected of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c