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Across several weeks, threatening messages recurred. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a high-value project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the globe," explains the resident. "But the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the air is filled with the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

For certain residents, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," states a tea vendor, in his fifties, who moved from southern India in that period. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, including the leather artisan, are opposing the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they fear that this project – absent of resident participation – could potentially convert premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since the late 1800s.

It was these excluded, relocated individuals who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, fewer than half will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. Additional residents will be transferred to wastelands and salt plains on the far outskirts of the city, threatening to fragment a historic neighborhood. A portion will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to stay in the neighborhood will be provided apartments in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has supported this area for so long.

Commercial activities from garment work to pottery and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to a designated "business area" separated from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to call home the slum, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor facility produces garments – formal jackets, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members resides in the rooms downstairs and his workers and tailors – migrants from other states – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside this community, Mumbai rents are often significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan illustrates a contrasting outlook. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style baked goods and croissants and having coffee on a patio adjacent to a coffee shop and treat station. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't improvement for our community," explains the artisan. "This constitutes a huge land development that will price people out for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the corporate group. Managed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the government head – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the business group paid $950m for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings stating that the project was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to actively protest the project, protesters and community members assert they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving messages, explicit warnings and implications that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to opposing national interests – by people they assert work for the developer.

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