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Over an extended period, threatening communications recurred. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, one resident states he was ordered to the local precinct and told clearly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar 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 corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is unparalleled in the world," states the resident. "But they want to eradicate our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the area. Homes are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the air is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"There's no proper healthcare, paved pathways or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

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

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they fear that this plan – absent of community input – is one that will turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and business activity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and $2m annually, making it a major unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be qualified for replacement housing in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, risking break up a generations-old community. Some will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for many years.

Businesses from tailoring to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to a designated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a leather artisan and long-time of his family to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level operation creates apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

Household members resides in the accommodations underneath and employees and sewers – workers from other states – also sleep on-site, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, housing costs are frequently significantly costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed residents gather on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental bread and pastries and having coffee on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no improvement for residents," states Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies calls it a partnership, the corporation contributed a significant amount for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been faced an extended period of pressure and threats – comprising communications, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the project was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by figures they claim represent the business conglomerate.

Included in these suspected of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c