Intimidation, Apprehension and Aspiration as India's financial capital Slum Dwellers Face the Bulldozers

For months, coercive communications persisted. At first, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, and then from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," explains the protester. "But the plan aims to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that dominate the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, like Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. However they are concerned that this project – absent of public consultation – might convert premium city property into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and $2m annually, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be transferred to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of the metropolis, threatening to fragment a historic community. A portion will be denied residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for generations.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and material recovery are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to call home the slum, the project presents a survival challenge. His informal, multi-level workshop makes leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family resides in the spaces downstairs and employees and garment workers – laborers from different regions – also sleep in the same building, allowing him to manage costs. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are often tenfold more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts a very different perspective. Slickly dressed people gather on bicycles and electric vehicles, purchasing continental baguettes and pastries and socializing on a patio near a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't progress for us," states the protester. "It's a massive property transaction that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities calls it a partnership, the developer paid a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the project, local opponents claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including communications, explicit warnings and suggestions that criticizing the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they assert work for the corporate group.

Among those suspected of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c