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Across several weeks, intimidating communications recurred. At first, allegedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, and then from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to the police station and told clearly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is among those fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of the slum is unparalleled in the planet," says Shaikh. "However the plan aims to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

For certain residents, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and apartments with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, paved pathways or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

But others, including this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

None deny that this community, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. But they fear that this initiative – without community input – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these shunned, displaced people who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose output is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum annually, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately one million people living in the packed sprawling neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for alternative accommodation in the project, which is expected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the metropolis, potentially fragment a long-established social network. Some will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in Dharavi will be provided units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the evolved, collective approach of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to live in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey operation makes leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – distributed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations underneath and laborers and sewers – laborers from different regions – also sleep there, enabling him to manage costs. Away from the slum, Mumbai rents are typically tenfold costlier for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts an alternative perspective. Slickly dressed residents mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing international bread and croissants and having coffee on a terrace adjacent to a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. It is a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that supports Dharavi's community.

"This represents no improvement for us," states the protester. "It's a huge property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Run by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

While the state government labels it a collaborative effort, the corporation invested a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the developer is pending in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the redevelopment, protesters and community members assert they have been subjected to an extended period of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, direct threats and implications that criticizing the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by figures they assert represent the developer.

Part of the group alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c