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Over an extended period, threatening communications recurred. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Finally, one resident asserts he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be razed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the planet," explains the resident. "But their intention is to eradicate our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," explains a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, including the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring investment and development. But they fear that this initiative – without public consultation – could potentially turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is worth between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare zone, less than 50% will be able for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, risking fragment a long-established neighborhood. Some will not get homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to a designated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For residents like Shaikh, a craftsman and third generation of his family to call home the slum, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-floor operation makes leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, fashionable garments – sold in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members lives in the spaces below and his workers and tailors – workers from different regions – also sleep on-site, permitting him to afford their labour. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are frequently 10 times costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings nearby, a visual representation of the transformation initiative shows a very different outlook. Fashionable people mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental baguettes and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. It is a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for residents," says the protester. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's concern of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the business group has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Although administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the business group invested a significant amount for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to vocally oppose the project, local opponents assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by individuals they assert are associated with the business conglomerate.

Included in these alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c