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Across several weeks, threatening communications recurred. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was summoned to the local precinct and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the globe," states the resident. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and elite residences that overshadow the area. Residences are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who relocated from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are opposing the project.

None deny that the slum, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they worry that this project – absent of public consultation – is one that will turn premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose output is worth between one million dollars and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about 1 million people living in the packed sprawling neighborhood, less than 50% will be able for alternative accommodation in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to complete. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to break up a historic neighborhood. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the organic, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time inhabitant to live in the slum, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His rickety, multi-level facility produces apparel – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family lives in the spaces downstairs and employees and tailors – laborers from different regions – also sleep on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Away from the slum, accommodation prices are often significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan illustrates an alternative outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying international baguettes and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area near a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that supports Dharavi's community.

"This represents no progress for residents," states the artisan. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the business group has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Although the state government calls it a joint project, the corporation paid nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the redevelopment, protesters and community members state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – comprising messages, clear intimidation and implications that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they allege work for the business conglomerate.

Included in these suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c