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Over an extended period, intimidating communications recurred. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a expensive initiative where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – will be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the world," says Shaikh. "However they want to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who moved from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

But others, such as Shaikh, are opposing the project.

All recognize that the slum, historically ignored as informal housing, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. However they worry that this project – absent of resident participation – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these excluded, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is estimated at between one million dollars and a substantial sum a year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be able for new homes in the project, which is projected to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be moved to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, threatening to break up a generations-old neighborhood. A portion will not get homes at all.

Residents permitted to stay in Dharavi will be given flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the natural, collective approach of living and working that has supported this area for so long.

Businesses from garment work to clay work and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be moved to a designated "business area" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and third generation of his family to reside in this community, the project presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level facility makes leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives lives in the accommodations underneath and laborers and tailors – migrants from north India – reside on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Outside this community, accommodation prices are typically tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows an alternative outlook. Fashionable residents gather on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, acquiring western-style bread and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace outside Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not development for our community," explains the protester. "This constitutes a huge land development that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although the state government calls it a partnership, the corporation paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. A lawsuit stating that the project was unfairly awarded to the business group is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – involving messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that opposing the development was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege are associated with the corporate group.

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