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Across several weeks, threatening messages recurred. At first, reportedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, a local artisan states he was summoned to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces bulldozed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the globe," states the resident. "Yet their intention is to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who relocated from his home state in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

But others, like the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – lacking public consultation – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since the late 1800s.

It was these excluded, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is worth between $1m and $2m a year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare zone, a minority will be able for new homes in the development, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to complete. The remainder will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of the metropolis, risking fragment a long-established social network. Certain individuals will be denied homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be provided flats in multi-story structures, a major break from the organic, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and long-time inhabitant to live in this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level workshop makes garments – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – distributed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and overseas.

Relatives resides in the rooms below and his workers and tailors – migrants from other states – live in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, housing costs are typically significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

At the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates a contrasting outlook. Fashionable residents mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, buying continental bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that maintains local residents.

"This isn't progress for us," states Shaikh. "This constitutes a massive real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has faced accusations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it denies.

While administrative bodies labels it a joint project, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A lawsuit alleging that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the business group is under review in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – including communications, clear intimidation and insinuations that opposing the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they allege represent the business conglomerate.

Included in these accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c