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For months, coercive communications continued. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a multimillion-dollar initiative where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is unparalleled in the world," explains the protester. "However the plan aims to dismantle our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Residences are built haphazardly and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

However, some, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the project.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this initiative – lacking public consultation – is one that will convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and business activity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and a substantial sum per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million inhabitants living in the crowded sprawling neighborhood, a minority will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to complete. Others will be transferred to wastelands and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially break up a long-established neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be given units in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be transferred to a designated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and third generation of his family to reside in the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-storey operation creates leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family dwells in the spaces downstairs and employees and tailors – migrants from other states – live in the same building, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are frequently tenfold more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the official facilities close by, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed people mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, buying international bread and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for residents," says the artisan. "It's an enormous property transaction that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group contributed $950m for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to actively protest the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – including messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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