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Across several weeks, threatening communications continued. At first, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a multimillion-dollar initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the planet," says the protester. "Yet their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and residences with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for children to play," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, like Shaikh, are opposing the project.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. Yet they worry that this plan – absent of community input – could potentially turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is valued at between $1m and $2m per year, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the development, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially divide a historic social network. Some will not get homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are projected to shrink in number and be moved to a specific "business area" separated from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to call home the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His rickety, multi-level operation produces apparel – tailored coats, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and overseas.

Relatives lives in the rooms downstairs and his workers and sewers – laborers from other states – live in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are typically significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates a very different outlook. Slickly dressed people gather on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This isn't improvement for residents," says the protester. "It represents an enormous real estate deal that will price people out for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Managed by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of favoritism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Although the state government labels it a joint project, the developer paid $950m for its 80% stake. A case alleging that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is under review in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the development was equivalent to anti-national sentiment – by figures they assert represent the developer.

Part of the group suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c