Intimidation, Apprehension and Hope as India's financial capital Inhabitants Face Demolition

For months, intimidating communications recurred. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to the police station and told clearly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the world," explains the protester. "Yet they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that dominate the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the air is saturated with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is an aspirational dream realized.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from southern India in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they are concerned that this plan – without community input – is one that will transform premium city property into a luxury development, displacing the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and economic productivity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars per year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, less than 50% will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to complete. Additional residents will be moved to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of the city, risking divide a historic neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be transferred to a specific "business area" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and long-time inhabitant to reside in this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor facility produces garments – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

His family resides in the accommodations below and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – reside on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically tenfold costlier for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices close by, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative perspective. Fashionable residents mill about on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no improvement for residents," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a massive property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Managed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the developer paid $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to an extended period of coercion and warning – including messages, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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