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Across several weeks, threatening messages continued. At first, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, subsequently from the police themselves. In the end, one resident states he was ordered to the police station and told clearly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the globe," states the resident. "Yet they want to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of this community sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

But others, such as this protester, are opposing the plan.

None deny that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. Yet they worry that this plan – lacking community input – could potentially turn premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have resided there since the late 1800s.

These were these marginalized, relocated individuals who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and economic productivity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million people living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to wastelands and saline fields on the far outskirts of the city, risking break up a historic community. A portion will be denied homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, communal way of living and working that has sustained this area for many years.

Businesses from garment work to clay work and material recovery are likely to reduce in scale and be transferred to a specific "industrial sector" distant from homes.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor facility creates leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

His family resides in the rooms below and laborers and tailors – laborers from different regions – live there, enabling him to afford their labour. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often significantly costlier for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts a contrasting outlook. Fashionable people gather on cycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental baked goods and pastries and enlisting beverages on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This is not improvement for our community," explains Shaikh. "It's a huge property transaction that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although the state government describes it as a partnership, the business group contributed $950m for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members assert they have been experienced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – including communications, explicit warnings and suggestions that criticizing the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they claim represent the developer.

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