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Over an extended period, coercive communications continued. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is part of a group opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the planet," says the protester. "However they want to dismantle our community and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is an aspirational dream come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," states a chai seller, 56, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are resisting the plan.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this plan – lacking resident participation – could potentially turn premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since the late 1800s.

This involved these shunned, migrant workers who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and economic productivity, whose economic value is worth between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the dense sprawling neighborhood, a minority will be able for alternative accommodation in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, potentially fragment a generations-old community. Some will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, communal way of living and working that has sustained this area for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and material recovery are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "business area" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational of his family to reside in Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, multi-level operation makes apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and internationally.

Household members dwells in the spaces underneath and his workers and tailors – migrants from different regions – live there, enabling him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are often 10 times as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the government offices close by, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different perspective. Fashionable residents move around on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style baked goods and croissants and having coffee on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that supports the neighborhood.

"This is not development for our community," states the protester. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists concern of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While the state government describes it as a collaborative effort, the developer paid $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been faced an extended period of pressure and threats – involving communications, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they assert are associated with the business conglomerate.

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