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For months, threatening communications continued. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, subsequently from the authorities. In the end, one resident asserts he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a expensive project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the world," states the protester. "But their intention is to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and frequently without proper sanitation, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future come true.

"There's no proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – absent of resident participation – is one that will transform premium city property into a luxury development, displacing the marginalized, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it a major unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million people living in the packed 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be qualified for new homes in the redevelopment, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. The remainder will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the remote edges of the metropolis, risking break up a long-established social network. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, collective approach of living and working that has maintained the community for so long.

Industries from garment work to pottery and recycling are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" far from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of this protester, a leather artisan and long-time resident to call home the slum, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-floor workshop produces garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in premium stores in south Mumbai and abroad.

His family dwells in the spaces below and employees and sewers – laborers from different regions – also sleep on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, accommodation prices are frequently tenfold more expensive for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan illustrates a very different perspective. Well-groomed people move around on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This represents a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains local residents.

"This represents no improvement for our community," states Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the business group paid nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A case claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the project, local opponents state they have been experienced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – including messages, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was comparable with opposing national interests – by people they claim work for the corporate group.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c