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Across several weeks, threatening messages recurred. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "But their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Dwellings are constructed informally and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

However, some, like Shaikh, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that Dharavi, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this plan – without resident participation – is one that will convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, displacing the marginalized, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these excluded, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is worth between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it a major informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million residents living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for new homes in the project, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, potentially break up a generations-old neighborhood. Some will be denied housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the evolved, communal way of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "business area" far from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation resident to call home this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His rickety, multi-level operation creates leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – distributed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members dwells in the spaces underneath and his workers and sewers – laborers from north India – also sleep there, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside this community, accommodation prices are often 10 times as high for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the government offices in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative shows an alternative vision for the future. Fashionable people mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style bread and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This represents no development for us," says the artisan. "It's an enormous property transaction that will price people out for our community to continue."

There is also skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities calls it a joint project, the business group invested a significant amount for its 80% stake. A case alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the business group is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to actively protest the development, local opponents claim they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by individuals they allege are associated with the corporate group.

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