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Across several weeks, threatening communications recurred. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be bulldozed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," says the resident. "However the plan aims to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the air is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We lack proper healthcare, proper streets or water management and we have no places for children to play," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who moved from southern India in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

But others, including Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. However they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – could potentially turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and business activity, whose production is valued at between one million dollars and $2m a year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately 1 million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is expected to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be transferred to wastelands and coastal regions on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to fragment a long-established neighborhood. A portion will not get residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from tailoring to ceramic crafts and material recovery are expected to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" far from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation resident to call home the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-storey operation creates apparel – sharp blazers, luxury coats, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family dwells in the accommodations downstairs and laborers and garment workers – laborers from north India – also sleep on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often significantly more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows an alternative vision for the future. Fashionable people mill about on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying continental baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and Ice-Cream. It is a world away from the affordable idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that supports the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for our community," says the artisan. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group contributed $950m for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is under review in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving communications, explicit warnings and suggestions that opposing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they claim represent the business conglomerate.

Part of the group accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c