Threats, fear and hope as Mumbai slum dwellers await the bulldozers

The clay artisans of Dharavi leave their pots to dry outside their homes. Photograph: Aakash Hassan/the Guardian

For months, the threatening phone calls kept coming. First, allegedly from an ex-police officer and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims, he was summoned to the police station and told clearly: keep quiet or there will be real trouble for you.

Shaikh is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar project in which Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be bulldozed and redeveloped by the multinational conglomerate Adani Group.