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Across several weeks, threatening messages persisted. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the police station and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the world," explains Shaikh. "But they want to dismantle our social fabric and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is an aspirational dream achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

However, some, including Shaikh, are fighting against the plan.

None deny that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. Yet they are concerned that this plan – absent of resident participation – is one that will transform valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it a major unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the packed sprawling zone, less than 50% will be able for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to finish. The remainder will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, risking break up a historic community. Certain individuals will be denied homes 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 living and working that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be relocated to a designated "industrial sector" far from homes.

Existential Threat

For those such as the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation resident to live in the slum, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level facility creates leather coats – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Relatives resides in the rooms underneath and his workers and garment workers – workers from different regions – live in the same building, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are typically 10 times costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative perspective. Fashionable inhabitants mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, purchasing international baguettes and pastries and socializing on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," says the artisan. "It's an enormous land development that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as the state government describes it as a joint project, the business group paid nearly a billion dollars for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members state they have been experienced an extended period of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, explicit warnings and suggestions that opposing the development was tantamount to speaking against the country – by people they assert work for the corporate group.

Included in these accused of making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c