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For months, threatening communications recurred. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was called to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is one of many resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the globe," explains the resident. "However they want to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of this community present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, like the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this project – absent of community input – could potentially convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the marginalized, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who developed the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and business activity, whose production is valued at between one million dollars and two million dollars annually, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately one million residents living in the dense sprawling zone, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to complete. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking divide a long-established social network. A portion will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be given units in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of living and working that has supported the community for generations.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "business area" distant from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as this protester, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to reside in this community, the project presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level operation produces garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members dwells in the rooms below and employees and tailors – migrants from north India – also sleep on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project illustrates a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants mill about on bicycles and e-vehicles, acquiring international bread and pastries and socializing on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This depicts a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't progress for residents," states the artisan. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Managed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the national leader – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group invested a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the development, local opponents assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – including phone calls, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the project was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by people they assert work for the developer.

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