Threats, Fear and Aspiration as India's financial capital Inhabitants Face the Bulldozers

Across several weeks, coercive communications recurred. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. In the end, one resident asserts he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be razed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of the slum is like nowhere else in the planet," says the resident. "But the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Residences are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the air is saturated with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

But others, like the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, forcing out the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and business activity, whose production is worth between a significant amount and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million people living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially break up a historic neighborhood. Certain individuals will be denied housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the neighborhood will be given apartments in tower blocks, a major break from the organic, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to ceramic crafts and material recovery are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "business area" distant from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to reside in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level workshop makes leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Household members dwells in the accommodations downstairs and employees and sewers – laborers from other states – also sleep on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are often tenfold as high for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing continental baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a patio near a coffee shop and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no development for our community," states the artisan. "It represents a massive property transaction that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's concern of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Although administrative bodies describes it as a partnership, the developer paid nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. Legal proceedings alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the business group is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – including messages, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the development was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by individuals they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

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