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Over an extended period, threatening messages continued. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from the authorities. In the end, one resident asserts he was ordered to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those opposing a high-value initiative where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is unparalleled in the world," states the protester. "However their intention is to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that loom over the area. Residences are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the environment is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, roads or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

However, some, like Shaikh, are resisting the project.

None deny that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this plan – lacking community input – could potentially convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, evicting the lower-caste, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Among approximately 1 million people living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the project, which is projected to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be relocated to wastelands and saline fields on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking divide a historic community. Certain individuals will be denied homes at all.

Those allowed to stay in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained the community for generations.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a designated "business area" separated from residential areas.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and third generation of his family to call home this community, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level operation produces leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in south Mumbai and abroad.

His family resides in the rooms underneath and laborers and sewers – laborers from other states – reside on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Away from this community, housing costs are typically tenfold more expensive for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the administrative buildings nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants gather on cycles and electric vehicles, purchasing western-style baguettes and breakfast items and having coffee on a patio adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This is not progress for residents," states the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the business group has faced accusations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the project was unfairly awarded to the corporation is pending in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to actively protest the development, protesters and community members assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, explicit warnings and suggestions that criticizing the development was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they allege represent the corporate group.

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