Hundreds of applications have been filed for S.E.Z. sites all over the country, many of them by domestic conglomerates like Ambani’s. Initially, the government took a central role in buying out farmers and selling their land to the corporations; but populist outrage quickly motivated politicians to declare that they were getting out of the land-transfer business. Now companies must negotiate directly with people living in the areas they’re interested in colonizing, while their applications for special tax-exempt status wend their way through the bureaucratic machine. Inhabitants of these areas complain that even if they don’t want to sell, they’re forced to, as land all around them is swallowed up and earmarked for chemical plants and new housing. Then there are concerns about pollution. (Any visitor to China’s economic belt will understand that they’re well-founded.)

Ambani has several ambitious S.E.Z.-creation plans in the works; one involves a parcel of land encompassing 45 villages (home to approximately 250,000 people, by one estimate) just south of Mumbai. Its proximity to the city suggests that it will only increase in value over time as Mumbai’s population swells. Its proposed size (24,000 acres) is double the maximum permitted by the government, and the project is stalled: Ambani and the bureaucrats seem to be locked in a stalemate over whether the government will grant him an exemption. A recent visit to the site revealed miles of bucolic farms and paddies, where women in colorful saris dotted the landscape, planting rice. There was little hint of the battle playing out over the region’s future.

While opposition to the zones has been mild in some parts of the country, the Ambani project has been met with anger, protests, and hunger strikes, including one by a group of female farmers in July. They say that people purporting to be Ambani representatives have conducted coercive land purchases, and they have asked the government to intervene on their behalf.

Seated in an office in one of the affected towns, Dutta Patil, a former opposition leader in the Maharashtra state government who is fighting the S.E.Z.’s on behalf of the farmers, whips out a map and gestures over a broad area. “All these are thickly populated by agrarian people,” he says, raising his voice. “All this community will be wiped out. Where are we to go? The minute this land is taken by Ambani, Ambani is going to build a castle on the land. Ambani will not allow me to get in this land without having a visa.”

Ambani will not discuss the points raised by his detractors. Reliance officials insist that they offer jobs or job training to people displaced by their development plans. Inside these S.E.Z.’s, Ambani says, “we can create infrastructure to attract the world’s best companies.”

The Family

The rags-to-riches story of the Ambani family is something Reliance loves to promote. Mukesh’s father, Dhirubhai, was born into a poor family in the state of Gujarat, rising from a scrappy textile trader into a mogul who initiated one of the country’s highest-profile initial public offerings, in 1977. A Bollywood movie, Guru, is loosely based on Dhirubhai’s life; its main character, Gurubhai, is depicted as an outsider, a masterful businessman and ruthless mercenary who’s skilled at targeting his enemies and manipulating politicians.

Australian journalist Hamish McDonald profiled the Ambani family in his book The Polyester Prince. According to McDonald, Ambani’s father began as an importer of polyester yarn at a time when cotton was still politically symbolic in India. His strategy was to move back along the supply chain and make the components that went into the production of synthetic textiles, building polyester mills and expanding into chemical manufacturing and petrochemicals. (The book has spawned numerous conspiracy theories because it was never published or sold in India, due to fear of legal action by the Ambani family, though it was published in Australia. Smuggled photocopies are passed around among business junkies in Mumbai like contraband cigars.)