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For months, threatening communications recurred. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. In the end, a local artisan claims he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many fighting a expensive redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the planet," explains Shaikh. "But they want to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and frequently without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for children to play," says a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, such as the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need economic input and modernization. But they fear that this project – lacking resident participation – could potentially transform valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, migrant workers who developed the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly a million residents living in the crowded 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be able for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take seven years to accomplish. Others will be moved to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of the metropolis, risking break up a long-established social network. Certain individuals will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated apartments in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to pottery and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For residents like Shaikh, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to reside in this community, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-floor operation makes apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

His family lives in the rooms below and his workers and tailors – laborers from different regions – reside on-site, allowing him to afford their labour. Outside this community, housing costs are typically significantly costlier for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different vision for the future. Fashionable people move around on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, acquiring western-style baguettes and croissants and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This represents no progress for residents," says the protester. "It represents a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also skepticism of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as the state government labels it a joint project, the developer invested $950m for its majority share. A case alleging that the project was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the development, protesters and community members claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the initiative was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they allege work for the corporate group.

Part of the group alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c