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For months, intimidating communications continued. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from law enforcement directly. Finally, one resident states he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is part of a group resisting a high-value initiative where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," states Shaikh. "Yet they want to dismantle our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and residences with two toilets is an aspirational dream realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. But they worry that this initiative – lacking community input – is one that will transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these marginalized, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose output is estimated at between one million dollars and $2m annually, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly a million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to barren areas and saline fields on the far outskirts of the city, risking divide a historic neighborhood. Some will not get homes at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be provided flats in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has sustained this area for generations.

Industries from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" distant from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of the leather artisan, a workshop owner and third generation inhabitant to call home the slum, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-storey facility produces garments – sharp blazers, luxury coats, fashionable garments – sold in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives resides in the spaces underneath and employees and tailors – laborers from other states – also sleep in the same building, permitting him to manage costs. Away from this community, housing costs are often tenfold costlier for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

At the government offices in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative illustrates a contrasting perspective. Fashionable people mill about on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," says the protester. "This constitutes a massive land development that will price people out for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Even as local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. A case stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising phone calls, direct threats and implications that criticizing the initiative was comparable with opposing national interests – by people they allege represent the corporate group.

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