Pressure, Apprehension and Aspiration as India's financial capital Inhabitants Confront the Bulldozers

Across several weeks, threatening communications persisted. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a high-value project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "But the plan aims to eradicate our social fabric and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are built haphazardly and typically without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and we have no places for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who moved from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, like Shaikh, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – lacking community input – might transform premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have been there since the late 1800s.

These were these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is worth between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million residents living in the dense 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to break up a generations-old neighborhood. Some will be denied housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in Dharavi will be given flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the evolved, shared lifestyle of living and working that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "business area" far from homes.

Existential Threat

In the case of the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey operation makes leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

Household members resides in the rooms below and employees and garment workers – migrants from different regions – reside on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Outside the slum, accommodation prices are frequently 10 times as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different outlook. Slickly dressed people move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental bread and pastries and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. It is a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This isn't development for residents," states Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While local authorities labels it a collaborative effort, the business group contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the project was questionably assigned to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – including messages, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by figures they claim work for the developer.

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