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Over an extended period, coercive communications persisted. Originally, reportedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," states the protester. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is an aspirational dream come true.

"There's no sufficient health services, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

However, some, like this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. Yet they worry that this project – without resident participation – could potentially convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is estimated at between $1m and $2m a year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly a million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, fewer than half will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the far outskirts of the city, potentially fragment a generations-old social network. Some will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the area will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has sustained the community for many years.

Businesses from tailoring to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a designated "business area" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a workshop owner and third generation resident to call home the slum, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor facility produces leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family lives in the accommodations downstairs and laborers and tailors – workers from north India – also sleep on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Fashionable inhabitants move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying international bread and croissants and having coffee on a patio near a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This represents no development for residents," says the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While the state government labels it a joint project, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. A case alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is pending in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members state they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – comprising communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the development was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they claim are associated with the developer.

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